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In Huntington, a little help for prom season

BY DEBORAH S. MORRIS | deborah.morris@newsday.com

6:58 PM EDT, April 17, 2008

The teenagers giggled as they browsed through two racks of party dresses ranging in hue from sparkly green to dramatic black, an evening spent indulging in a rite of passage: picking out a prom dress.

They modeled for their friends, mothers and other onlookers and primped in the mirror, a time of sheer delight.

Nearby, a table of shoes, pocketbooks and jewelry offered options for the finishing touches.

The scene Wednesday was not at a mall or a fancy boutique. It was at the teen center of the Tri-Community and Youth Agency in Huntington Station, an organization that serves families in Huntington, South Huntington and Cold Spring Harbor. Officials from Tri CYA teamed up with town board member Glenda Jackson and the Family Service League for the prom dress giveaway of donated dresses.

The event benefits "young ladies who may not ordinarily have the opportunity to be a part of their prom because of economics and can't afford a dress," Jackson said. "As a single parent myself, I understand how hard it is sometimes when you just don't have the extras."

Tiffany Carpenter, 16, had pulled aside 12 dresses as candidates for her first prom, at Walt Whitman High School on May 16. Her only requirement: that the dress be long.

Her grandmother, Ruth Delgado, looked on admiringly as Carpenter modeled a beige satin strapless number. "I don't know which one to pick," Carpenter said. Delgado concurred: "She looks good in all of them."