For the past week, Danyel Johnston’s phone has been ringing off the hook.

“People have been coming out of the woodwork,” she said Wednesday. “They have been calling every Johnston in the phone book until they get me.”

The 29-year-old Cherryfield woman has been a popular person Down East since January when she started Cinderella’s Closet of Maine.

Her idea was to gather donated prom dresses and then offer them to high school students in Washington and Hancock counties who perhaps could not afford to buy new dresses.

Formal gowns often carry price tags that reach into the triple digits and Johnston said that’s a lot of money to pay for a dress that will be worn only once.

The word about Johnston’s idea spread quickly and in less than two months, she gathered nearly 200 gowns.

She held two “shopping” sessions in March – one in Milbridge, another in Hancock – where girls could come in and try on dresses. Because those events generated so much interest, Johnston has decided to open up the closet again.

“I still have plenty of dresses left and more are coming in all the time,” she said.

Johnston has been taking appointments for Saturday, April 7, at The Ledges in Milbridge, and so far she has 14 girls signed up.

“I can take more,” she said. “I really don’t want to turn anyone away.”

About 12 teens showed up at each session in March, but Johnston said as news has traveled, more and more people are rallying behind the idea.

Johnston came up with the concept for Cinderella’s Closet based on her own experience about a dozen years ago when someone let her borrow a gown so that she could attend her prom.

“I was in their shoes once,” she told a mother at an event on March 25 at the White Birches Restaurant in Hancock.

Johnston has worked with guidance counselors at area high schools to find girls who are interested in making appointments.

Because pride is such a big factor for the teens, Johnston said she has been working instead with parents and school administrators.

At the March 25 event in Hancock, two Ellsworth High School students and friends who made appointments admitted they were skeptical about the selection at first, but each went home with a gown.

For information about Cinderella’s Closet of Maine or to contact Danyel Johnston, call 546-3252.