RIPON — Marissa’s Closet – the Ripon source for free prom gowns – is looking for a new home due to the pending sale of the building that Melinda Shaw and her corps of volunteers have called home for the past two years.

It is currently prom season with high school girls from as far away as San Jose, San Francisco, and Sacramento coming to Ripon searching for dresses to wear for their pregraduation event.  Marissa’s Closet currently has some 1,800 mostly new gowns on their display racks that are also being offered to students in Ripon and other Central Valley communities.

For the next three weeks high school students, with their school ID cards in hand, will be able to browse for dresses on Wednesday evenings from 4 until 7 p.m.  Shaw said they may have to close early on March 28 when volunteers will start packing up the gowns and display racks for an uncertain destination.

The 5,000 square foot former Ripon Pharmacy and Gift Store at 300 East Main Street had been literally gifted to them by retired pharmacist Dale Larson initially on a day-by-day agreement. 

Larson said Tuesday that the building has been empty for three and a half years, noting that it was good to have someone like the Marissa’s Closet people occupying the building for the last two years. 

“It’s always more attractive when you have someone in the building and they have certainly done their part in taking that worry off my shoulders,” he said. “It has been helpful having someone there keeping an eye on things.”

Shaw was complimentary of her landlord who also provided them with the electricity to run the lights to show off their prom gowns – in addition to the free rent.  The former pharmacy site would normally rent for $1 a square foot which equates to $5,000 a month from the longtime Ripon business leader – an answer to a prayer.



Girls from Los Angeles now turn to Ripon’s Marissa’s Closet

“Everybody is calling now for dresses,” Shaw said.  “We are trying to accommodate three from the Los Angeles area.  We got an email from Eastvale this morning, just outside the city of Corona.”

She quoted a high school girl as saying she couldn’t afford a dress and she had heard about the Ripon non-profit, asking how she could be helped.  Shaw said she took photographs of several dresses and put them online to give the senior a selection from the measurements she had provided.  When she decides on the gown of her choice, it will be shipped to her at no cost.

“We pay for the shipping; we pay for everything,” Shaw said.

“L.A. Community College just contacted me and they want to do a dress drive for the end of March.  Depending on how big the turnout, we told them we would drive down on the final day with a truck and bring everything back,” she said.

Melinda Shaw has a day job in Los Gatos in addition to her mission to carry on the prom dress closet started by her late daughter Marissa McLeod.  Many nights she has been seen working until near midnight in the former pharmacy building only to get up before dawn and commute to her job as a negotiator for the Santa Clara County Family Health Plan serving underprivileged children. 

It’s something she has been doing for a long time and parallels what she has done with Marissa’s Closet. She often gets by on just a few hours sleep and currently on crutches with a broken ankle from a fall in a parking lot.

“I just got 700 dresses that came from Alexandria’s Formal Wear in Sacramento,” she said.  “We sent U-Hauls up there three weeks ago and then spent $1,000 on new racks to accommodate those new dresses.”

Some donated gowns have come in as normal donations as the winter formal season ended and the word spread of the need in Ripon.  Shaw said that her team was making a circuit in Sacramento attending the prom expos and responded to an invitation to visit three high schools.

Shaw said she has boxes of dresses in the store that have yet to be opened.  All the nearly new dresses are cleaned before they are offered to the public.

“We did the big Teen Prom Expo at the Double Tree Hotel in Sacramento and that’s how it all started,” she said as she stood among the hundreds of dresses on display this week.

Marissa’s Closet has two “Special Needs Balls” coming up where they will provide the necessary gowns for excited young girls.  The first is on April 24 in Modesto at the Del Rio Country Club with over 100 couples already signed up to attend.  Dubbed the “Black and White Ball,” it is being sponsored by the Society for Handicapped Children and Adults.

On May 19 Shaw and her volunteers are set to provide for the second “Special Needs Ball” that will be held at the sponsoring Capital Christian High School and known as “The Evening of Dreams.” 

Some 500 are already registered for that event that is being forced toward a larger facility next year due to its popularity.  Marissa’s Closet has been involved in those proms for the last three years.

Shaw said she is hoping to find a new location to offer prom dresses with at least 4,000 square feet of space where counseling with seven volunteer therapists could also be offered to troubled teens in a secluded area in the rear of the new location.

An annual fund raiser is scheduled for April 28 at the Ripon Community Center with tickets for the dinner set at $25 on sale either at the store or online. 

“We are looking for corporate sponsors and raffle and auction items,” Shaw said.

The website for the closet is www.Marissascloset.org and the email is Marissascloset@aol.com.

“So anybody who wants to talk to us can email us,” Shaw said. “We’re also on Facebook and we always respond,” she said.