With money tight, mom and dad said this wasn’t the year to buy a prom dress for Lawrence High School senior Stephanie Reed.

So Saturday afternoon, she joined a couple dozen girls in the basement of the Lawrence Community Building, 115 W. 11th St., to find one that she could afford. She had more than 250 free dresses to choose from — in all different shapes, colors, materials and sizes.

“We decided it’s free, so we might as well come and look,” Reed said.

The Prom Dress Drive was the brainchild of AmeriCorps volunteer Paige Blair and her director.

Blair wanted to do a fashion show and clothing collection as one of her projects. And the Prom Dress Drive, a concept that has blossomed in other towns across the country, fit her passion for recycled clothes.

“It seems silly. They kind of get one-time use and then stored away,” Blair said of the traditional treatment of prom dresses. “It is kind of a cool opportunity for girls to utilize resources that we already have in town.”

For two months, Blair worked on the drive, asking the community to go through their closets and look for old prom dresses, formal dresses and even their daughters’ dresses and bring them to the Roger Hill Volunteer Center, 2518 Ridge Court.

Some of the dresses still had tags, most were very modern looking and some of them were simply “treasures,” Blair said.

“You might go out and buy one that would look just like it. So if they could save money and put it toward something else, it would be well-used,” Blair said.

Leftover dresses will still be available at Roger Hill Volunteer Center.

On Saturday, many of the girls — such as sisters Sierra and Shasta Conrad — did find success. The Free State High School students came to the event because their mom was volunteering. But they walked out with evening wear in hand.

Shasta snagged a zebra-printed Jessica McClintock dress. And Sierra found a shimmery blue gown from XOXO.

“I just liked the color,” Sierra said.

Now all that is left before the big day is finding the right shoes.