BCAT News

Prom season is fast approaching, and for the last six years, Joanna Schlansky has been leading the charge in the Burlington community to make sure every student has a chance to go with her annual contribution to the “Belle of The Ball” fundraiser.

Per the organization’s website, Belle of The Ball began in 2005 as a community relations initiative for Anton’s Cleaners. Jordan’s Furniture and Enterprise Bank have since joined Anton’s in their efforts of “ensuring that local high school juniors and seniors who otherwise would be unable to afford a dress can attend their high school proms feeling beautiful and confident.”

Schlansky recalls seeing an ad for Belle of The Ball on television years ago, “I have two daughters and I know how expensive it is to go to their prom and how crazy it is for just one day. I’m very lucky I can afford to send our girls but a lot of people can’t.”

Schlansky, a local real estate agent in Burlington, recalls how she would often see prom dresses sitting in the closets of her clients’ homes.

“I came to the idea of why don’t I ask some of these people what they do with these dresses.” 

Dresses can be dropped off from now until March 8th at the following locations in Burlington: True North Coffee Shop, Elite Realty Experts, and DaMore Law all located on Cambridge Street. All dresses will be professionally cleaned by Anton Cleaners and displayed at an invitation only event in Boston for qualifying students.

Schlansky estimates they have collected about 40-50 dresses so far this year and her team is hoping to collect at least 300. 

“I get calls in November-December if we’re still doing the prom dress collection even though we haven’t started the fundraiser yet, and I say yes and they come drop them off at my house. So now I’m just known as the prom dress lady around town.”

“I feel very lucky and fortunate in so many ways, and I want to be able to give back and this is one of the ways I give back.” said Schlansky, “I’m on the Community Service Outreach Committee for the Greater Boston Association of Realtors. We work on a lot of community service projects, so it’s something that’s always been a part of me and I love to give back.”