Senior gets 'ultimate' prom night
ROBINSON TWP, Allegheny County — Tickets to Butler Senior High School's prom only cost $20 per person.
However, the “ultimate” prom experience for a young woman — a custom-made gown, a trip to the beauty salon, a limousine ride, a steak dinner and a professional photographer, costs a lot more. About $1,000 more.
That's exactly what Erin Gregio, a senior at Butler, got Friday after being selected the winner of the first “Ultimate Prom Giveaway.”
The contest was organized by Carrie Ann Lehrman, owner of DressHaute boutique.
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Lehrman said the idea behind the contest was to help out someone who would like to go to prom and be treated like the “belle of the ball,” but who could not afford some of the more luxurious aspects of the experience.
“I truly believe that sometimes people just need a little bit of help. I wanted to be able to give some girl, who has always dreamed of going to prom, the opportunity to go,” Lehrman said.
Erin said she was planning to go to the prom, but she and her family would not have had the money for most of the things she was treated to Friday.
“I love it. It's just so much better than I thought it would be,” she said Friday afternoon after getting dressed and ready to go out to dinner with her date.
Butler prom was Friday night at Butler County Community College's Founder's Hall.
Lehrman partnered with a Pittsburgh radio station to advertise for submissions and got local businesses — Caruso Hair, Sun Club tanning, Petal Pushers, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse and Classic Limousines — to donate.
To enter, participants had to state their case in writing as to why they deserved the giveaway.
Erin's entry shares a little bit of her family history, Lehrman said. Her mother passed away when she was a toddler and she works to help with some of the bills.
She said she applied after hearing about the contest on the radio, but didn't think she had a good chance to win.
“I was so surprised, I was really surprised,” she said about getting called, live on the radio, and told the big news.
But a couple weeks before prom, Erin ran into some difficulty.
Things didn't work out with her original date and she had no one to go with.
After hearing about her dilemma, Lehrman was able to step up again. She asked her cousin Kieran Firment, a senior at West Allegheny High School, if he would escort Erin to the big dance.
After learning about the situation he said he was happy to do it.
“She sounds like a great person, so it makes me want to take her all the more,” Kieran said about being Erin's date.
