100 Mile House’s Dress the Dream looking for new storage space
Published 5:00 am Tuesday, February 10, 2026
More than 200 dresses and counting have been donated to 100 Mile House’s Dress the Dream program.
An initiative organized by several local 100 Mile House women, Dress the Dream was launched in the fall of 2025 to collect used formal wear for Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School students to wear during this year’s Dry Grad and Grad Parade. Dress the Dream co-founder Erin Filtness said the community response so far has been overwhelming.
“The amount of garments that we have there is more than I thought we were going to get. It’s not just old stuff, we’ve got stuff from recent years and stuff that is very much still in style, which is amazing,” Filtness said. “This community seems to pull together for each other any time it’s needed. I’m not surprised at all. It’s kind of par for the course around here.”
Over the last several months, Filtness said that donations of formal wear, especially dresses, have been coming in on a weekly basis. While they are still looking for men’s wear such as suits, cowboy hats and dress shoes, their success has come with one notable downside: storage space.
Filtness said she and Kristin Buxton, her fellow co-founder, are now actively looking for a new space to store the donated formal wear, as their current space in the 100 Mile House Library is becoming overcrowded. They are looking for an ideally heated space large enough to store all their garments ahead of their planned distribution day at the library, where grads will be able to select their chosen outfits.
“We would love to have somewhere we can store them. Somewhere we can hang them up would be great, but I’m not picky; I would take anything. If we don’t have storage, we can’t do this program for our community.”
Filtness said that anyone with a suitable storage space in mind can contact her at [email protected]. She noted that they could also split the collection up into multiple storage locations if need be, as 200 dresses do take up a lot of room.
While the deadline to donate formal wear to Dress the Dream this year is fast approaching on Feb. 13, Filtness reiterated they are still looking for country and western attire. Dress shirts, dress pants and shoes are needed and can be dropped off at Northern Lights Tanning during its regular business hours.
“We would love more western attire, more shoes for men and women. We’ve got lots and lots of dresses,” Filtness said, noting they will still happily take dresses for future years. “We’d love cowboy boots and some cowboy hats.”
One nice thing about the excess of garments, Filtness noted, is that when the grads do come to pick out their outfit for grad they will have actual choices. She added that some of the brands that have been donated include Romantic Bridals, Flair Prom, Ellie Wilde and Alyce Paris.
The fitting for grads who signed up for the program will take place on March 4 and 5, from 3 to 7 p.m. at the 100 Mile House Library. Filtness said that after the fitting, she hopes to move the remaining clothing to its new home.
“I’m sure we’ll get a storage space, I’m not worried about it. This community turns out whenever we need them to, I’m not stressed,” Filtness remarked. “I would like to thank everyone for the donations because the dresses and what we have gotten so far are so much. I get tears in my eyes. It’s wonderful to see what people are donating.”
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