I sold my wedding dress shortly after we got married; I thought at the time that I would never need it. I never went to prom. Now, however, I wish I had one dress or the other; I love the idea of dressing up for a good cause!

MomsGetReal™ is always on the lookout for moms making a difference in the world, and we’re pretty excited about this one, because YOU can do the same thing in your community and make a difference too!

Mom Prom is a fundraising event that started in Detroit but is gaining popularity around the country. The event has moms dressing up in their fanciest dresses and spending an evening out in order to raise money for charity.

Mom Prom was started by Betsy Crapps, who wore her fluffy pink prom dress to an Academy Awards watch party at a friends home. It was a hit with her friends, who all agreed to don their fancy dresses for charity. It grew in popularity and the first annual Mom Prom was held at St. Thomas a’Beckett Catholic Church in Canton, MI. The ladies, who paid $10 each to attend the prom, raised $820 for a local homeless shelter.

Annual Mom Prom night is April 29, 2011. It’s not too late to plan a Mom Prom for your community. As they say at the Mom Prom website, these women are “Changing the world, ladies, one prom at a time!”

That’s MomPower in Action!

5 Steps To Create Your Own Prom, from the Mom Prom website:

1. Reserve a hall and DJ as soon as possible. We had fun with a female DJ because it is a ladies night out and men are not present. I encourage you to reserve a hall that will not charge you for use so more money will go to the charity, rather than to prom expenses.

2. Advertise Early. Make flyers, send emails, place phone calls. Moms are so busy taking care of their families that they forget to take time out for themselves. Have your friends put it on their calendars right away so they can make a commitment to enjoy a ladies night out.

3. Organize. Start planning how you want the event to run weeks prior so you are not overwhelmed at the time of prom. We started making our paper tissue flowers a few weeks before the event. I made the posters, raffle boxes, and purchased miscellaneous items when I had free time or found items on sale.

4. Ask for Donors. We hold a raffle every year and women are very generous to donate items from their home businesses. We sold tickets – 4/$1.  You may want to  approach businesses to encourage a financial donation so more money will be sent to your charity.

5. Make Reservations. We always go out to dinner prior to prom. This is not necessary but it is a lot of fun!

Recruit your friends to help set up and clean up. Set up usually takes us two hours. We hang streamers, paper tissue flowers, and set up our prom photo area. Since our husbands are home with the kids, we had life-size cardboard cut-outs of John Wayne, James Dean, and Burt Reynolds so women could choose their ‘prom date’ for the standard prom photo. We served punch and cookies and encouraged women to bring a plate of goodies to share so less money would be spent on prom expenses and more money benefited our charity. If you are interested to learn how we ran our game to crown the new queen or how the tackiest dress contest worked, please contact me at themomprom@yahoo.com .