Pop-up prom drive to promote sustainability at Tam

By Colette Hale

For the past five years, Stephanie Young, a licensed social worker and active parent in the Tamalpais High School community, has helped to run Tam’s Pop Up Prom Drive. This event aims to create community at Tam by providing formal wear for everybody and anybody who wants to attend prom.

In 2018, Young started the event informally with a few students who needed extra support obtaining formal wear, and eventually it grew into an actual store. She had the idea to start the store because she thought it would be a great way to bring everyone in the community together.

This year, Young is running the event with Tam junior Sophia Weinberg. Their goal is to get as many students to donate prom attire as possible and get students involved in the community, that way there can be enough items for everyone to get what they need.

“It’s an event where everybody feels included, because it’s not about affordability, it’s about sustainability. It’s a green event,” Young said.

It is an eco-friendl event because it promotes sustainability and allows students to rewear items so they don’t have to buy new ones.

“We try to consider all items and think if someone would want to wear it. We try to take everything because you never know what someone will want,” Weinberg said.

This year the drive is taking place from Feb. 4 until the end of March, and students can go get their formal wear on March 30 and 31, when the store opens. Students can drop off their donations at the Mill Valley Community Center or the Tam High office. Additionally, the student-run business, KK Swaps, will also be accepting donations at their next sale on March 11 and 12, at 224 Laverne Ave.

Students of all grades and genders can go to the Pop-Up Prom Drive, and everything is free. Last year, there were about 200 dresses, 50 suits and a couple 100 pairs of shoes. Around

200 students were fitted, and everything that was not taken was shared with San Rafael High. Additionally, on the second day of the sale, all schools, public and private, were able to come and shop for prom attire, which will be a continued practice this year.

“I would love for students to donate any formal wear that they have because this ultimately is for them. I would like him to know that there will be a place set up on March 30 and 31 in the Ruby gym, where everyone will be welcome to participate by donating and taking formal wear so they can be prom ready,” Young said.

Transparency: Sophia Weinberg is a section editor and reporter for The Tam News. To remain impartial, she was not given access to edit or pre-read this article ♦

“I set up a sign and six hearts at my favorite mural alley in SF, Clarion. I was joined by a person who was clearly both without housing and without food. They were engaged in seeking both. As I left, they stopped to reorganize the hearts into a display that better met their idea of ideal display.

When I pulled away in the truck, they came walking out of the alley . . . carrying all six hearts. My first thought was, well, that can happen when you release hearts into the wild. I’ll circle the block and offer to buy them.

When I came around the block, I saw them hand one to someone else, and now they were carrying only 2 . . . looking to give them away. I got a quick photo as I had to get back to work.

They were doing exactly what I asked, sharing their hearts.”

By Catherine Stauffer

In the midst of the pandemic, a movement of love was spurred by Mill Valley sculptor Tim Ryan as he began bending hearts out of the metal rings that form wine barrels; today he has made 1,290.

Affectionately deemed “The Heart Guy,” Ryan began creating and leaving piles of hearts around Mill Valley and its surrounding area, asking for people to share their hearts with those who needed it. The movement blew up online, taking a life of its own as Ryan started teaching others how to make hearts.

“I think it’s better having multiple hands touch something,” Ryan said. “There’s a certain amount of letting go of quality, but as I keep saying to people, you’re sharing your heart. I don’t get to say how deep the bends should be or how round your heart should be. It’s your expression.”

“Last week an amazing stranger asked for three hearts for a wedding, one for her, one for her new daughter in law, and one for the new in-laws. I had a couple rings left in the yard, bent them, she offered to buy them, and I declined. We share our hearts. When she picked them up she insisted on making a donation for me to buy more rings. She left enough for me to buy 80 rings, so yesterday I picked up 200 rings in Pacheco, and texted her my thanks for getting me to be active in this project again.

She responded, her RV burnt to the ground on her way to the wedding with all decoration and wedding dress destroyed. But she was safe, and able to salvage our hearts ... they were the altar at the beach wedding. I can’t make this stuff up, it’s such a beautiful intimate story of someone sharing their heart.”