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Philadelphia School District Helps Teen Girls Go To Prom

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The School District of Philadelphia held it's 4th annual Red Carpet Glam event Friday, giving female juniors and seniors a chance to pick up free formal attire for prom.

Kimyatta Rahatt says the idea for the event came back in 2013 as she and a coworker had a conversation about how expensive going to the prom can be for some students:

"Its kind of hard for parents to afford so we said 'what if we can put together where we could give away free dresses, free shoes, and free handbags?' So we started the first year and we got a couple hundred dresses and a couple hundred girls, and we just kept on going from there."

Rahatt says the dresses, 80-percent of which have never even been worn, all come from donations:

"From district staff, from parents, from strangers, boutiques, organizations like fraternities and sororities. Just everyday people who just hear about, and call and say 'I have some dresses'."

Rahatt says more dresses are always welcome.

If you'd like to donate, call Kimyatta at (215) 400 - 4200, or email her at krahatt@philasd.org.

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