ABOVE: A look at some of the dresses available at Action169’s Runway for a Cause shop, located at 1105 N. State Street in Fairmont.

FAIRMONT– For the fourth year, Action169’s Runway for Action: Dresses for a Cause is offering prom and other formal dresses at a low price that helps support women overcoming the challenges of exploitation and addiction. This year, they’ve set up shop in a new location at 1105 N. State Street in Fairmont, next to Pizza Ranch. It opened for the season on Saturday, Jan. 18.

In the first year, the program was a one day event with dresses set up in the Fairmont High School Media Center. For the last two years, the dresses have been located at Five Lakes Centre in a pop up shop.

“This space opened up so we came here,” said sister advocate, Diana Bradley. “The mall was wonderful but we wouldn’t fit there this year.”

The space isn’t the only thing that’s new. There are dozens and dozens of new dresses and also different types of dresses this year.

“The focus is still prom, but we do have formal dance dresses, wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses and mother of the bride dresses,” Bradley said.

There are roughly 400 dresses in all different colors and styles and sizes ranging from 0 to 32. There are still new, designer dresses coming from boutiques in New York and Chicago, but also some locally donated dresses from Elegance by Sarah in Okoboji, Iowa and Sisters Bridal and Tux in New Ulm.

“We’ve had some really generous donations,” Bradley said.

The store is now broken into two parts, the dresses in the back (weddings, bridesmaid, etc.) are for purchase and the dresses in the front (mainly prom) are available for rent. The way it works is a girl will rent a dress, which she’ll have until June, and just pay $52 as a cleaning fee. All proceeds go to Action169’s cause.

In addition to the dresses, there are some accessories available for purchase including shoes, bags, belts and jewelry. There will also be some unique pop-ups available including Sarah Emmett’s J.Bloom collection of temporary and permanent jewelry and Kintsugi Necklace and Scripture Scrunchies.

They have a wide reach that extends far beyond Fairmont and Martin County.

“We have people coming from Wisconsin, Ames, Iowa, all the way to the Minnesota border. We’re pulling in about a 120 mile circle,” Bradley said.

She said this is one of Action169’s biggest programs, though noted they regularly do outreach. A lot of the girls who shop with them know what the cause is.

“Most of the girls know what it’s supporting and they come because of that,” Bradley said.

The store will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays through the middle of June. It is also open by appointment. For more information, visit Action169.com/runwayforaction.