League City business owner holds dress pageant due to canceled proms

With proms canceled because of COVID, many students are missing out on sporting their designer dresses.

However, one League City shop owner is giving girls a reason to get all dressed up. 

“I was looking forward to it for so long, the whole year,” says Taplin Sauls. The recent graduate of Bay Area Christian High School was disappointed when her school’s prom was called off and not enough people signed up to hold a small celebration.

Many families started shopping at Dress Galaxy on Landing Blvd. as early as October, snapping up exclusive gowns but eventually finding nowhere to wear them.

Madison Kaysen was excited to attend prom with her senior boyfriend, but they were left without a place to dance after the event was canceled.

“I ended up breaking up with him, so now I have the dress but not the boyfriend,” laughs Kaysen.

To cheer them up, the store owner put together a prom pageant to put a nice finishing touch on a rough end of the year. 

“We’re very close to them, and our heart ached that they're having no prom,” says Dress Galaxy owner Ruby Ashraf.
But she adds, “there is always a new opportunity in every catastrophe.”

Girls who purchased dresses from the store were invited to walk a red carpet runway Saturday. The pageant was arranged by employees who couldn’t wait to wear their own ensembles.

“The three of us have been putting this event together for the last month or so,” says Layla Schuh.

“We were just so bummed whenever we heard that we couldn’t have our prom, but this makes up for all of it,” says Karlie Kalischko. 

The catwalk includes a Q & A session with each contestant answering a light-hearted question followed by a weightier one on social issues.

Afterward, the panel of guest judges rated the contestants, and their votes were tallied.

Kaysen wins runner up and receives a crown.

Then, Raydiance Brooks, a recent graduate of Hightower High School is announced as the pageant winner.

She says she entered the pageant to cross “walking a runway” off her bucket list.

For her and the other 2020 graduates who have had to adjust many senior year expectations, they're walking away with unique memories and new lessons.

“Have fun and never miss out on things,” says Brooks, a self-proclaimed “homebody”.  “Always do something you wouldn’t usually do.”

She and the other girls have also taken away another valuable lesson: “never let a good dress go to waste.”