true story
the glass slipper project:
a cinderella story
“You cannot imagine the power of a dress,” says Dorian Carter, who has no need to imagine.
She sees the power herself, hundreds of times every spring, when young women, whose lives are lacking in everyday magic, slip into prom dresses they could never afford. In a whirl of accessories, makeup and hairstyling, they are transformed into radiant beauties whose glamorous, prom-perfect outfits are theirs to keep.
The Glass Slipper project is a thoroughly modern fairy tale about three spirited female activists who, once upon a time, shared the same goal of helping financially disadvantaged young girls in their communities.
In January 1999, these three women came together after Dorian Carter, who works full-time as special assistant to the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools system, read a magazine story about a Washington, D.C., homeless shelter that had provided its resident high school girls with prom dresses. Carter called the shelter and was put in touch with Katharine Shaw and Rachel Klyman — two similarly inspired Chicagoans with eight recent bridesmaid stints between them.
“They had the dresses, and I had the girls,” Carter laughs, and thus was born a dynamic, yet romantic, Cinderella story throughout the United States and Canada.
