By RONALD W. ERDRICH, Abilene Reporter-News

BROWNWOOD, Texas (AP) — At $500 a frock, "one-and-done" sounds painful when applied to a prom dress. But for many girls, that's exactly what it comes down to.

"My mom had seven kids" Sierra Spruill said. "It's hard to pay for prom dress for each one."

The Abilene Reporter-News reports Spruill is a senior at Howard Payne University and the president of the Social Work Club. It's a service club at the university whose members assist groups within the larger community outside of the school.

"We do a blanket drive for the Salvation Army, we help with National Night Out," Spruill said. "We reach out to organizations in our community that need a little help."

The Social Work Club recently held its annual Cinderella Project to assist girls with the cost of prom. The expenses add up real quick for a spring formal dance.

"Prom dresses range from $200 to about $400, or $500, depending on sequins and all of that. They are crazy expensive," Spruill said. "A prom dress is pretty much a one-time thing, you don't re-wear a prom dress. You go the first time and that's your grand finale for that dress."

The philosophy works when it comes to a wedding dress, not so much in any other context, however. Consequently, there are a lot of slightly-used — or even purchased but never worn — prom frocks in the world.

Wouldn't it be great to sort through some of those? That's exactly the idea behind the Cinderella Project, now in its 12th year.

"Girls want to experience the prom. Every year, as juniors and seniors you get to go and it's a piece of your high school experience," Spruill said. "Not having to pay for that makes it one hundred percent better."

That's right. Instead of $500, girls could get a prom dress for the cost of a breath of fresh air. Remember all those dresses in the world? There's lots of now-wiser girls who love passing them on.

"We put out flyers at Howard Payne and (the dresses) come from the girls on campus, or even from the guys whose sisters bought dresses," Spruill said. "(People) in the community hear about the drive and contact us to say they have dresses to donate."

One of the most interesting twists are those girls who came a year or two before to get a dress, and then returned that garment to pick out a new one.

"That's truly a blessing, that they get to take away and give at the same time," Spruill said. "They get to give back, to what was giving to them."

It's held HPU's Girling Center for Social Justice and there's no eligibility requirements. The club asks the girls to fill out a questionnaire asking where they are from, how many dresses are required and to whom the dresses are going. The club reaches out to local school districts to determine their dates for prom to strategically coordinate their own two-day event.

"So that it will benefit as many schools as possible," Spruill explained.

Skylare Strasser, 17, came from Bangs with her grandmother, Debbie Williams. Strasser was getting nowhere finding a dress at a retailer that she liked.

"I looked everywhere; David's Bridal, Beall's, even the glamour shop downtown and I couldn't find anything in my size that would actually look good on me and be slimming," she said. "I heard about this Cinderella Project and I said to my Nana, 'Nana, we have to go to this 'cause you never know. They could have all sorts of dresses?'"

It was a good bet, Strasser left satisfied with what she found.

"We were really excited, it's an awesome thing they're doing," said her nana.

Daimia Partin was shopping for her sister Savannah, a sophomore at Priddy High School who happened to also be competing in a track meet in Zephyr that afternoon.

"She couldn't be here, but we definitely needed a free dress because we don't need to spend the money," Partin said. "We have a brother that's a senior this year, and he's got to get invitations and everything. We are trying to save money and this is what we decided to do."

Partin deserves a particular shout-out; not only was she shopping for dresses and texting photos of them to her sister, she also had to keep an eye on her year-old son Barrett.

If you've ever been a little boy stuck in a dress shop, you know it doesn't exactly rise to the heights of diversion you're accustomed to. Fortunately, cartoons nowadays play on smartphones.

"The theme this year is Enchanted Garden, so we're kind of looking for green but other than that I'm not too sure," Partin said. "I've probably gone through about eight and thought 'Okay, maybe this one,' and sent it to her."

In between running the 400, her sister settled on "the sparkly one." So far, so good.

"That's what we're going for," Partin said, sounding relieved.

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Information from: Abilene Reporter-News, http://www.reporternews.com

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