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Date: 11/3/2021
LUDLOW- After a year off in 2020, Second Time’s a Charm, a non-profit in Palmer located at 4 Springfield St. in Three Rivers, run by two Ludlow residents that provides formal wear to girls attending proms, will host its second adult prom at the Ludlow Country Club on Nov. 13 to raise funds for their boutique.
Natalina Tulik, one of Second Time’s a Charm’s co-founders, said the idea for the adult prom came from parents saying they did not go to their high school prom before it morphed into the boutique’s biggest fundraising event.
“We had parents coming in saying they did not go to their proms, and the more we kept hearing adults say that we said, ‘Why don’t we do an adult prom as a fundraiser?’ So that is how we got the idea to do it our first year and then everyone had fun, so we decided to keep it as our annual fundraiser,” she said.
For the prom’s first year in 2019, Tulik said about 100 people attended and she is hoping for the same amount of people, with room for up to 140.
“The first year we had about 100 people and we are hoping to have about the same this year. I do have it set for 140, down from 175 in case anybody is uncomfortable with larger crowds,” she said.
In terms of the night’s events, Tulik said promgoers can anticipate a cash bar, free photos and a buffet dinner.
“We award a prom king and queen, it is a buffet dinner, a cash bar and we do have a photographer that will be taking photos and it will be a free downloadable,” she said.
Another part of the event co-founder Michelle Annecchiarico said people can look forward to is the DJ, JerryOke.
“The DJ is amazing and literally had everybody dancing the entire night last time. The last prom ended at 11 p.m. and we had people dancing until 10:55 p.m., there were people on that dance floor until the last dance, it was kind of funny,” she said.
Tulik said they initially started the boutique after seeing the number of dresses available while her daughter’s friend could not afford a dress without the help of her date’s parents.
“The year my daughter went to prom, a friend of hers who asked a girl to prom who said no because she could not afford a dress and his parents helped her buy a dress. I was shocked because all these dresses are sitting out there doing nothing,” she said.
Annecchiarico added that her daughter saw people selling their dresses with little success.
“My daughter said she saw people selling prom dresses and I asked if anybody buys them and she said no, so I said this is ridiculous,” she said.
Tulik said because of the boutique’s success in its first year, she and Annecchiarico had to find a new location.
“In our first year we kind of outgrew our space very quickly and we ended up finding this place at the end of 2019 and we moved in in January, opened our doors two weeks later and then got closed down in March due to COVID-19,” she said.
Annecchiarico said the boutique is run completely by volunteers and donations and any funds raised go toward rent, insurance or smaller expenses like hangers and racks.
“The whole entire place is done by volunteers; it is totally a community effort, and we could not do it without the volunteers. All of the furniture, all of the dresses and all of the accessories was donated, but we do operating expenses ourselves,” she said.
Overall Annecchiarico said they have about 2,000 dresses in the boutique and gave out about 700 in their first year in 2019. Along with dresses, Second Time’s a charm offers accessories including handbags, jewelry and a limited selection of menswear.
Tulik said all the dresses have a suggested donation of $20 but will help anyone if they cannot pay.
“Everything in our shop is free or for a suggested donation of $20, which helps us offset our costs for rent, insurance and all our other little expenses,” she said.
During the boutique’s first year, Tulik said parents were blown away because it was the first time their daughters could go somewhere and pick anything they wanted to wear for their prom.
“Our first year when we opened, we found we had parents who came in and would say, ‘Do you know what it feels like to just have my daughter come in here and be able to pick out anything she wants?’” she said.
Annecchiarico said that feeling from parents made her feel like they were doing the right thing.
“For us that was validation that what we were doing was good, and it is fun too,” she said.
Tickets for the adult prom are available for purchase for $50 online at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/one-fall-night-adult-prom-tickets-184358159217?aff=erelexpmlt.