Several times a day, a special piece of joy is carefully packaged during a memorable time of year.
For many teens, prom is like a rite of passage. It’s a magical night that culminates years of hard work.
“For prom season, I always wanted to see where we could help teenagers out,” said Steven Burton, the Santa Clarita-based men’s formalwear company Perfect Tux owner.
Perfect Tux set out to empower Antelope Valley foster boys through a partnership with the LA County Department of Children and Family Services.
LA County has over 30,000 foster youth, the largest in our nation; Antelope Valley has a third of that population.
“This would be a great time to try something like this, so we created this initiative called ‘Do Good, Dress Great’,” said Burton.
Providing needed resources is a team effort.
“This is such an important opportunity, especially for young men,” said Guadalupe Arias, Program Manager for United Friends of the Children.
“We usually get support services when it comes to the prom dresses, and for our young ladies, we forget our young boys,” said Arias.
An idea was born. The Do Good, Dress Great initiative provided teen boys with a rare opportunity to receive a professionally tailored fitted suit that could be used for prom, graduation and even a job interview.
“It was exciting just to choose out a suit,” said Andrew, a foster teen getting a suit for prom from Perfect Tux.
“It’s pretty important, since it’s the last time I’ll see my classmates,” said Andrew, “the final goodbye, one final like dance.”
It may be a final dance, but it’s the next step into a world of new beginnings.
