On Saturday, April 5, I attended the Perfect Prom Project's Boutique Day at the Illini Union.

The event was an opportunity for girls who attend Central Illinois schools to get a prom dress for free. The dresses are donated beforehand by anyone who dropped one off and mailed one in, and this year the boutique raked in more than 500 dresses.

The Sunday before the event, the Perfect Prom Project — a U of I student organization — had held a prom dress fashion show at Centennial High School. I attended and won a raffle that entitled me to take home one of 40 dresses. However, the organizers told me that, if I wanted to, I could come half an hour early to the boutique to see if there was another dress I liked better.

When I arrived at the Union around 9:30 a.m. (the boutique day would officially start at 10) there were already about 20 girls with friends or parents lined up outside the door of Room 314. Uncertain, I approached the door that I was pointed toward and knocked. As I was admitted I could almost feel the glares on my back of those not so patiently waiting outside.

Inside the room was a bit like organized chaos as various volunteers rushed around hanging up dresses and laying out shoes, purses, and jewelry. I began browsing around the many racks and soon had a pile of dresses to try on heaped on a chair.

As I was trying them on in a dressing room (room dividers with sheets artfully hung on them), I heard the doors open and the sound level double. There were about 30 people who had been waiting by now, and all of them wanted to find a dress they liked — fast.

Soon there was a line of girls waiting to get into the few dressing rooms, so I hurried to finish and made my exit. The line extended from one room into another, and I was grateful that I had the chance to get there early and not deal with the crowds.

So I wandered over to the accessories, where a helpful volunteer determined that I would need a necklace and earrings with my dress. After making my jewelry choices, I was guided to the shoes, but there was nothing that matched my dress in my size.

The purses, however, were more plentiful, and I found one in a matter of minutes. The volunteer assisting me even gave me some new makeup as an added bonus.

I checked out of the boutique around 10:30 a.m., and there had already been six other people who had taken dresses home. With my newly bagged dress and accessories, I left feeling accomplished that so far I hadn’t spent any money on prom.