Inside an unsuspecting shop space at a busy Australian mall, a haul of hundreds of glitzy garments waiting to be selected by graduating students lines the walls.
Each of the pieces has been donated by members of the community as part of an initiative called The Formal Project, which has for three years given financially strained kids the opportunity to feel just as special at their school formals as their peers.
Founder Sam Oakes this year was donated shop space at the Minto Mall, in Sydney’s southwest, to accept students for fittings, having previously run the project from her home.
“Last year, we ran this out of our lounge room. It was absolute chaos,” Ms Oakes said.
“Now, thinking about last year, we don’t know how we did it. It’s crazy.”
It was a necessary upgrade given the volume of students doubled this year, with more than 800 booked in to be fitted for their formal wear in the coming months and more than 87 volunteers signed up to help.
The offer extended to any child who needed it, Ms Oakes said, with the initiative having also shipped off a huge collection of items for students in the Northern Territory.
The Formal Project’s shop space on Thursdays and Fridays received entire bus loads of students from schools up to two hours’ drive away hoping to find something to wear.
“Our only stipulation with that is that kids don’t have to pay for the coach and that parents are invited to attend because it’s not something we want a parent to miss out on,” Ms Oakes said.
Students also donated hair, makeup and barber services, and the program was structured in a way that meant no two kids from the same school were booked for a fitting at the same time.
Ms Oakes, who works in disability and mental health support and has five children of her own, refused to take praise for the initiative, instead crediting the community who had turned out in droves to support the project.
“It’s not me doing this, yes I’m the face and we’re doing the admin, but it’s the community,” she said.
“We called out for an open volunteer day on Sunday, and the people just kept coming.”
While the initiative had been a poignant reminder of how the community bound together when it needed to, Ms Oakes said it had not been without emotional strain.
“It’s a really heavy thing to do, it really is. Some days it’s really hard but that’s why we’ve got that village behind us because we can rely on and support each other,” she said.
A dad recently called the project after being asked by his daughter, initially thinking it was too good to be true but ended up in tears when he learned it wasn’t.
“He rang to see if it was true because he thought his daughter was lying about it being free,” she said.
“So I explained how it works and he burst into tears, then I burst into tears. He had lost his wife two weeks earlier and was still struggling to pay for her funeral and was going to not send his daughter to the formal because he couldn’t afford it.”
The child had since been booked in for a fitting and will be able to enjoy the celebration with her peers.
It was for little girls like this that Ms Oakes established the project three years ago.
“I had one family friend that asked me about a dress they could borrow and I did, then they had a friend so another was borrowed and I thought, ‘hold up, I think there’s a need for this’,” she said.
The project last year fitted 113 boys and more than 300 girls and this year will cater to more than 800 students before the end of November.
Ms Oakes stressed no child would feature in any social media posts when they came for a fitting, while those with bookings were not permitted to take any photos or videos while they were there.
“Because they don’t need to be a poster child for anything, they just need to go to their formal and know that a community has come together, that they’re loved, important and they’re valued,” she said.
Members of the public interested in supporting the project can donate via its GoFundMe or make garment donation enquiries through its Facebook page, The Formal Project.