Matt Freed, Post-Gazette Tavaunna Moore, 18, of the Hill District, checked out a prom dress from Project Prom Shop Downtown Thursday. The program provides underprivileged students with prom dresses. Click photo for larger image.

Students who want to be belles or beaus of the ball but can't because they lack appropriate clothes for their proms, have found a willing dance partner in Project Prom Shop.

The free attire -- new or gently used formal gowns, shoes, jewelry, gloves, wraps, hosiery, purses, tuxedos and suits -- went to 134 students this week.

"[Project Prom is] doing a great job by helping out students like us during the very special moment," Tavanna Moore said minutes before receiving her prom dress. She will attend the prom at City Charter High School.

Prom-bound students aren't the only ones happy.

The project now uses space that formerly housed a day care center at 1 Smithfield St., but that space is to be renovated for human services offices. So Project Prom Shop was desperate to find permanent storage.

Project leaders are breathing a sigh of relief because an anonymous group has offered a permanent future site.

"It's definitely a move forward. We don't think it is going to be the last year that the students will have opportunity to get free prom dresses," said Dana M. Sheehan, coordinator of Project Prom, a partnership between the Allegheny County Department of Human Services and the Parental Stress Center.

Four years ago, Mrs. Sheehan and her colleague, Ebony Pugh, conceived the idea of providing prom attire to students who otherwise would be unable to attend the school year-ending dance.

Clothing priority is given to youths whose families are served by county human services, or those are who are neglected and abused, homeless, mentally retarded, or deal with mental health or substance-abuse issues.

Project Prom has about 2,500 gowns and accessories, according to Mrs. Sheehan.

In addition, it has received gift cards for five full tuxedos from Tuxedo Junction, which also offered to pay about half the expense of 19 other tuxedos.

Mrs. Sheehan said the other half of the cost will come from $732 in proceeds from the project's Friday afternoon public sale of clothes.