Prom season will soon be upon us and ACE (Andover Community Engage) have launched their prom initiative to help teens for their prom.
Following the closure of the Andover Prom Dress Shop earlier this year, the much loved shop that provided many teens over the past 4 years have benefitted from the service and made their prom dreams reality. Such was the demand that Ace Community Engage (ACE) decided to explore to continue this community service.
ACE are delighted to announce that they have now got everything in place to offer prom dress and suit rentals. However they will be starting from scratch and are asking the public for their donations. Working with Ben’s Quality Dry Cleaners on Union Street, ACE are asking for donations to be taken to Ben’s whilst ACE wait for their new home to be ready.
Maria Tierney told us “It was never in our plans for ACE to take on this venture, but following the closure of the Prom Dress shop, we couldn’t leave this years youngsters in need.
“We benefit from having more volunteers and flexible opening hours, which will make the facility much more accessible. The community have been fantastic with supporting us with amazing dress donations, we can’t wait for the prom season to start!”.
Andover Community Engage was started by its founder Tania Hall Her Maternal Grandmother Mary Jefferies installed in her the desire to help others and never let anyone go without. Her paternal Grandmother ran the youth centre on Floral way in the 70’s.
Some would say she was destined to form ACE from the very beginning. Tania initially started answering pleas for support from local people needing items in an emergency, she kept an eye out for clothing items going free on Facebook Marketplace to meet the need. This slowly evolved over the years until she was asking friends to help volunteer and having to source alternative storage when they had both filled up their sheds and garages.
Tania Hall opened the first ACE building in early 2021, Tania and Jenna together with what has now become the ACE family of volunteers started to run the Andover Clothing exchange and Baby Bank events.
Siobhan quickly joined the group to run the Nappy and Sling Library which then birthed the Little Poppets group.
The Community Fridge and Youth drop-in then started in July 2022.
