In loving memory of Melissa Michalowski & Crystal Carr

About Us: In 2008 Whitmore Ace Hardware was fortunate to have employed a bright and shining start named Melissa Michalowski. Melissa came to work every day happy to be there. It was hard to miss her smile and happy attitude within the store Sadly in December of that year Melissa was killed in a car accident along with her friend Crystal Carr. This was a such a huge loss to all.  Our staff at Whitmore Ace Hardware, felt strongly we wanted to do something in Melissa’s memory. We employ quite a few students who were talking about the expense of their prom. They were asking to work more hours to be able to afford it. A lot of the students could not afford dresses or tux’s or limos, a lot of thing other students may take for granted.

Whitmore Ace Hardware has four locations in four separate communities, so what a great opportunity to collect gently worn prom dresses. We said “yes to the dress” in an unlikely place like a hardware store, and the dresses came in. We created Melissa’s Closet and Crystals Jewelry Box. Reed Custer School and Mrs. Melinda Hogan gave us a room to sell these prom dresses for $5.00 each one day after school. The first year we were so excited to have 120 dresses and we are now into our sixth year and have dressed over 1250 girls for prom. Godley Park District was kind enough to give us a home for such a large event. In 2015 we had over 1200 dresses. Paul Mitchell School brings their students out to set up a beauty salon and will do updo’s and make up for free.

Last year we had over 100 volunteers. We have been lucky enough to have new dresses donated by local prom stores along with jewelry shoes and purses. 2015 was our first year of the Melissa’s Closet and Crystals Jewelry Box Scholarship of $1000.00. Our goal is to increase that scholarship every year. At 9 am on the Saturday of the sale there are always lots of beautiful young students waiting for the doors to open.