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Zengeler Cleaners Helps Prom Dreams Come True for Chicago-Area High School Women

Collects, donates more than 5,000 prom dresses in 14th year partnering with Glass Slipper Project

NORTHBROOK, Ill. — Zengeler Cleaners collected and donated 5,287 dresses this spring for the 2016 Glass Slipper Project, a Chicago-area volunteer organization that gives high school girls the opportunity to experience prom at their schools.

“Collecting donations for the Glass Slipper Project is one of Zengeler Cleaners’ favorite times of the year,” says Tom Zengeler, company president.

Zengeler Cleaners delivered the dresses to Price School in Chicago in time for two Saturday shopping opportunities on April 2 and 9.

The items are distributed free of charge to students at Glass Slipper “boutiques” where each student receives individual assistance from a volunteer “personal shopper,” allowing students plenty of time to “shop” for their own prom dresses.

Besides dresses, the company also collected, through its eight store locations, shoes, accessories and jewelry.

“Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of donated items,” the cleaner indicates, with a total estimated value of more than $3.5 million.

“With the ongoing support from Zengeler Cleaners, (both) area high schools and local businesses have joined in the collection effort, greatly expanding the reach of this worthy cause,” the company says.

The Glass Slipper Project is an organization that helps make dreams of attending prom a possibility for thousands of Chicago-area and northern Illinois high school girls, writes the cleaners.

“We are very happy to see communities coming together to help other communities,” notes Tom Zengeler, “and in particular, to see high school students joining hands to donate prom dresses and accessories for the benefit of other high school students.

“That spirit is at the heart of the Glass Slipper project, and Zengeler Cleaners is proud to partner with them.”

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Tom Zengeler (left), president, Zengeler Cleaners, and his brother, Mike, hold two of the more than 5,000 prom dresses their eight stores collected for the Chicago-area Glass Slipper Project this spring. (Photos: Zengeler Cleaners)

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Oscar Gonzalez, director of business operations for Zengeler, holds up some of the dresses donated during the cleaner’s 14th year of participation in the prom dress drive.

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A Zengeler Cleaners employee irons donated dresses to get them ready for prom.

Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Dave Davis at [email protected].