Costume designer giving away free prom dresses

PIERCE -- One woman in northeast Nebraska is giving away prom dresses out of her massive costume store. 

Katherine Steinkamp learned to sew when she was just ten. Now, her store Spotlight Costume in Pierce has more than 20,000 pieces, many of which she put together herself. 

Steinkamp is known to northeast Nebraska as your one-stop shop for One-Act costumes, but she also is helping women who can't afford bridal and prom dresses. 

Right now, she has about 250 donated prom dresses for girls who can't afford them. She keeps them in the shop, inside of her shop, called "Sparkle and Shine". It started as a service project from a local school, which she then turned into a mobile charity, and then mixed with her costume store.

"People give me shoes, jewelry -- the girls can take whatever they need to make their look complete [...] I'm not a very frilly person but I appreciate it now!" She joked. 

Steinkamp was a teacher and set designer for local high schoolers. There, she realized (with her anthropology degree) the importance of something so seemingly simple as prom. 

"It dawned on me that these teens can't participate in their culture [...] they want to have their night out and they can't do it unless they have a dress," Steinkamp said. 

Some of her customers are local, and some are regulars from far away.

"There's a girl from Stanton who comes every year. She tries on all of the dresses, and she looks beautiful in all of them! Her mom is really sick, and there's no way they could afford a dress. She used to think she'd have to borrow them all, but now she has her own dresses," she said. "Last year there was a masquerade and she got a mask from us, too."

There are options for boys too.

"I have these vintage tuxes that I can't give away but the boys can rent them [...] guys and girls can come in and shop together for their date."

She's open Mondays and Wednesdays from 5:30-8:30 p.m. until her store moves downtown in June. Until then, Steinkamp will be focused on what she calls laundry season and creating new costumes.

Steinkamp notes she does not do alterations, but, the prom dresses are often already altered and not their original sizes. She says she's in desperate need for larger sizes if you'd like to donate! Dresses have to be under six years old.