Trailer reported stolen filled with gowns and suit for Gowns4Grads program. (Trenville 248 Facebook)

By Alessia Proietti

Show must go on

Trailer filled with dresses and suits for ‘Gowns4Grads’ program reported stolen

Feb 12, 2024 | 3:59 PM

The ‘Gowns4Grads’ charity event is currently in limbo as the trailer filled with dresses and suits has been reported stolen.

Tammy Moyes, committee member for the program, shared on social media that the trailer, parked on her parents’ front yard on King Street in Elnora, was stolen on Saturday while no one was home from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. She says neighbours did not see the theft taking place and believes the individual may have taken the back roads out of the village.

The 12×6 ft white trailer has a ramp-style back door and side door on the passenger side. There is an “I [Love] Alberta Beef” sticker on the back door and a license plate number of 4491-37.

Moyes states the trailer held over 500 dresses, 100 suits, 10 dress racks, mirrors, room dividers, shoes, accessories, and more. She states the dresses are stored in roughly 15 Sterilite 189L red and blue Stacker Totes and the remainder in dress bags.

Sterilite 189L red and blue Stacker Totes (Trenville 248 Facebook)

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The Gowns4Grads program, run by the Elks of Alberta, a volunteer organization to serve communities in positive ways, provides free formal dresses and suits to teenagers for their graduations. Moyes says there is no income requirement, all dresses are donated, and the families are allowed to keep the pieces or return them for future donations.

“For as many dresses that we give away we probably get just as many back so we’re able to keep a solid collection,” she said, adding that many were donated by Tammy Prince from the former Cinderella Project, a local home-run initiative with a similar purpose.

Run by the Trenville 248 branch in central Alberta, Moyes says it has become a family affair as her mother volunteers for the program and her father loans his trailer to transport and store the gowns.

Moyes said the news has been devastating, especially as they were supposed to be in Red Deer from February 20-22.

READ: ‘Gowns 4 Grads’ returns to Red Deer Feb. 20-22

“It’ll take us a while to get our collection back to what it was, but our ladies love this program and love helping out grads. We’ve had people even reach out to say they’re upset too because they were waiting for this to come this month so that they could bring their daughter or their son to get a dress or a suit. So, we don’t give up easily; we’re going to keep going even if it takes us a while to build back up again,” she said.

Picture from a few years ago with showcasing how many gowns and equipment they have in the trailer. (Trenville 248 Facebook)

She says the community has come together with overwhelming support to help ensure the show runs through, which is the plan so far.

The Sherwood Park Elks branch, where the program initially was inspired by and who donated the first dresses to the central Alberta branch, as well as other branches have already lent some of their collections, she states. Your Story Fitness, a local gym in Red Deer (4736 50 St.), has provided a temporary trailer for the program and is using the location as a donation drop-off from Monday to Friday 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. and 5 – 8 p.m. Moyes says they have also started to collect racks and room dividers.

“It’s sad that it takes a tragedy to really get attention to a program sometimes but it’s also great that people are really stepping up in a great way and helping us out so we can help out the grads,” she said.

Moyes says she hopes that the people who stole the trailer will dump the dresses somewhere and will be found in usable condition.

RCMP have confirmed that the Three Hills branch is currently investigating into the matter but does not have any helpful surveillance footage.

Until then, donors can reach out to the program on Facebook of by telephone at 403-357-8292.

A GoFundMe has also been set up to help replace the gowns.

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