There’s no doubt about it, Prom is expensive — so much so that some students may choose to skip this milestone event in order to save the hundreds of dollars some spend on dresses, accessories, and everything else that goes into the big night.

Cathy Keighley of the Bristol County Elks Lodge #1860, did not think that was fair — so she and a committee of volunteers, including fellow Elks Michelle Medeiros, Gina DiSano and Deb Coccio, as well as Jessica Williams of the East Bay Community Action Program, decided to do something about it.

All last year, they collected and organized gowns, shoes, evening bags and jewelry for the ladies and suits, tuxedos, dress slacks, shirts and shoes for the gentlemen. With the support of Town Administrator Steven Contente, they arranged it all in a room on the third floor of the Byfield School. The Community Prom Room opened in March as a pop-up prom thrift shop, by appointment only, where everything was completely free of charge.

Initially intended for students in Bristol, Warren, and Barrington, they fielded so many requests from other communities that they opened it to students from Tiverton and Seekonk as well.

It was a tremendous success. About 55 students were able to outfit themselves for prom, and many also received flowers, manicures, and prom tickets. The effort is already well underway to make it an annual event — this year with DiSano at the helm as Keighley is now the Club’s Exalted Ruler with many other irons in the fire.

Knowing they had hit on something great, the team submitted a packet of information about the Community Prom Room to the Elks National Community Award Chairman in March.

In early July, at the Elks National Convention, Bristol County Elks Lodge #1860 was awarded 2nd nationally in their division, Division VI, determined by the number of members in each lodge (Bristol County has over 2,600 members).

“It takes a village,” said Keighley of the effort. “And we are fortunate that our community is very generous.”