Prom season is months away, but right now, Jennifer Gaston has got strapless bodices, floor-length hemlines, and satin and sequins on the brain. For the chairwoman of The Princess Project San Diego, this month is all about saying “Yes” to the dress.

Maybe even yours.

Through January, Gaston and a legion of community partners are accepting gently used formal dresses of the prom, cocktail, bridesmaid and quinceañera variety. Donations of jewelry, purses, evening wraps and other accessories will also gratefully be accepted.

In March, The Princess Project will distribute the finery to high school girls from low-income families who could not afford to buy a dress for their prom. The dress giveaways will be held at a storefront in San Diego’s Horton Plaza, the Vista Library, the El Cajon Library and, for the very first time, the South Chula Vista Library.

“It’s a big deal,” Gaston said. “So often, it’s the difference between being able to go to prom and not being able to go to prom.

“We really do promote self esteem and inner beauty,” she added. “We make it really special for these girls. It’s not just that we are giving away prom dresses and earrings. We are giving them a chance to feel beautiful.”

This is the sixth year The Princess Project has been ensuring financially challenged girls don’t miss out on this teen rite of passage. There is no stringent application process for a girl to get a dress, but typically they are referred by foster homes, homeless shelters, boys and girls clubs, school counselors and charitable foundations.

Last year, the nonprofit outfitted more than 1,000 girls for prom. The goal for this year’s dress drive is loftier than a tulle skirt: the nonprofit hopes to receive more than 3,000 dresses to serve 1,200 girls. This would provide an ample selection for the teens to choose from and a good head start on building next year’s inventory.

Nationwide, the average cost of going to prom last year was $1,139, according to Visa. Gaston said a prom gown represents a hefty piece of that price tag and can cost upward of $350.

About 40 percent of the girls served by The Princess Project come from South County, Gaston said. That is why she reached out to Joy Whatley, the senior librarian at the South Chula Vista Library to participate in this year’s dress drive and giveaway.

“The South Chula Vista Library is dead center in an area of tremendous need,” Gaston said. “They are thinking of hosting two full days (to give away dresses) because the need is so great and so many girls come from around there.”

Whatley is an enthusiastic cheerleader for The Princess Project and took Gaston’s request one better. She has decided to turn a couple of meeting rooms at the library into boutiques so girls who live in the area can come in by appointment and comb through the racks for the perfect dress.

She is in the process of marshaling volunteers for the events from such groups as Altrusa International of Chula Vista and the city of Chula Vista’s Youth Action Council. The council’s teen members will be particularly useful in helping their peers select a stylish prom dress in what will be “definitely a Cinderella moment,” she said.

Whatley has cast her net for dresses, too, and has already received nearly a dozen dresses so far this month. She has hung two of the dresses in her office to inspire her to seek more donations.

“They are gorgeous,” she said. “One is a beautiful shade of red and another is sky blue and white. I’m sure they were worn once and never worn again. They look pristine.”

The Princess Project is powered completely by volunteers (200 and counting) and has an annual operating budget of about $14,000 which comes from donations and a fundraising dress design competition held in partnership with the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising. Most of the funds go toward the purchase of accessories and petite and plus-size gowns, which aren’t donated as much as other dresses, as well as utilities, storage and truck rental to transport the gowns from collection sites to giveaway locations.

Gaston said one of her favorite moments during a dress giveaway is watching the change that occurs in a tom boy who comes in with no idea what she wants, let alone what her dress size is.

“They only know skinny jeans and a hoodie,” she said. “They walk in with their head down and their shoulders at their waist and my personal shoppers (volunteers) will make them over and encourage them and get some pretty dresses on them, and all of sudden, they are standing up straight and their mothers are crying at such a remarkable transformation.”