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Compassion for those who are suffering through hard times in Elkhart can travel great distances, as msnbc.com's Vidya Rao notes in this post about a pair of prom patrons:
Eight days before the Elkhart Memorial High School senior prom, while her classmates were buying last-minute accessories and planning after-party activities, 18-year-old senior Sam Stephenson had other things on her mind. She had just been kicked out of her foster home and was living in an emergency shelter. Though she had made plans for the big day, she knew she couldn't afford the $20 ticket let alone the frills, such as getting her hair done or going out for a fancy dinner.
That was when Stephenson discovered that she had been given a golden ticket with accoutrements rivaling those of Cinderella, thanks to a fairy godmother in Germany.
Judy Campbell, who is from Pennsylvania but lives in Germany, read a post on msnbc.com about girls in Elkhart and around the country having to cut back on prom or even nix prom altogether because of the cost.
Campbell, who had no connection to Elkhart, was so moved that she decided to donate gift certificates for two girls to go to Saturday's prom in style. She gave them each a package to provide them with a dress, hair appointment, accessories, flowers, dinner and prom pictures, at a cost of $330 per girl. (Click here to read the Elkhart Truth's story on Campbell's gift.)
"I just ask that the girls send me a photo from prom," she wrote in an e-mail to the school's activities coordinator, Jacqueline Rost, who helped arrange the purchases. "I hope that they make wonderful memories."
When Rost told Stephenson the news, she was shocked. "I almost started crying, I was speechless," she said. "I didn't know what to say 'cause I usually don't get those kinds of opportunities. I was like, 'Why me?'"
Rost was charged with choosing the girls, and said her decision wasn't difficult. "The girls we chose have been through so much, but they're still top students," she said. "They deserve this."
Campbell was moved to do even more after hearing about Stephenson's situation. "She cried on the phone," said Rost. "Then I got an e-mail from her later that day saying that she wanted to get the girls graduation presents – and buy them laptops!"
Campbell wasn't alone in wanting to help.
Illinois resident Nikki Noffsinger, 63, read about Elkhart in the Chicago Tribune and also wanted to help make prom a reality for two other Memorial High students. She donated $125 gift certificates for dresses from the local dress shop, Stephenson's.
"I remember my prom, it was in 1964," Noffsinger said. "These girls deserve to remember theirs."
Sam Stephenson says she's sure she won't forget.
"I'm going through a hard time, it's been rough," she said. "I'm looking forward to the future, because now I really believe that you never know who or what can come into your life."
The donations don't just uplift these teens' spirits, Rost says, but they benefit the community as a whole.
"There's been so much negativity about Elkhart; it's like we've been ostracized," she said. "But then you see common denominators that unite us. Whoever thought that one of those would be prom?"
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