Maui Economic Opportunity Youth Services on Molokai received 75 prom dresses from The Bella Project Hawaii for distribution at no cost to island high schoolers. Mokulele Airlines flew the dresses over to Molokai late last month. A distribution event will be held early next year. — Photo courtesy of MEO
Two nonprofits and an airline have partnered up to offer 75 prom dresses at no cost to Molokai youth, who have to travel off island to purchase their formal wear.
Oahu-based nonprofit The Bella Project Hawaii collects donations of dresses, shoes, jewelry and accessories and gives them away to high schoolers. The project also partners with nonprofit organizations that work with low-income, special needs, critically ill and military high schoolers.
Mela Candelario, Maui Economic Opportunity Youth Services Program specialist, had worked with the project in the past and reached out to them. On Nov. 27, the dresses were flown to Molokai by Mokulele Airlines.
“Not all families can afford the accumulated cost of getting a prom dress,” Candelario said in a MEO news release Friday. “For our Molokai ohana, it’s not only the dress purchase but flight tickets, as well, to a Neighbor Island because we don’t have boutiques or formal dress shops on the island.”
Bella means beautiful in many languages; the goal is to create “Bellas of the Ball,” according to the Bella Hawaii program.
MEO Youth Services is planning a giveaway of the dresses at no cost early next year at the MEO Molokai office, Candelario said.
“Much Mahalo to The Bella Project and Mokulele Airlines for making this all possible,” Candelario said.
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