Community Corner

Port Washington Resident, Scotto Bros Donate Long Beach Prom

Victoria Scotto also organized a prom dress donation party.

This story was posted by Adina Genn. It was written by Linda Amarante.

Prom night – a once-in-a-lifetime experience and rite of passage for thousands of high school students – was almost canceled this year for seniors at Long Beach High School. Until a miracle came knocking, with the help of a Port Washington resident. 

This year, Chateau Briand will donate Long Beach High School's senior prom on June 20 to help out a town that was struck by a disaster known as Hurricane Sandy, said Victoria Scotto, the company's sales manager, who lives in Port Washington. 

Owned by the Scotto Brothers, Chateau Briand in Carle Place has hosted Long Beach High School's senior prom for the last eight years. Victoria Scotto said she received a call in January from the high school's senior adviser who was concerned about students this year paying for the prom after so many families had suffered such devastation from Hurricane Sandy. 

After realizing the hardships these students were facing, the Scotto Brothers decided to donate the prom to Long Beach High School. “We decided to donate the prom for all 350 students,” Scotto noted.  

She said that Long Island has always been good to the family-run business, so they decided to give back in any way they could. Scotto's father, Victor, and uncle Tony have been running Chateau Briand since 1978. After the decision to host and donate the senior prom, Victoria Scotto put the news up on Facebook, where she received an overwhelming response from the community.

“Everyone wanted to help,” she said, “they all were asking what they could do to help.” Scotto then decided to take on a project of her own and organized a prom dress donation party.  

The party, held on April 18, provided dresses, jewelry, shoes, gift cards, pocketbooks and more for Long Beach seniors.       

“It was a wonderful event,” Scotto said. “There were smiles on all the girls' faces. Girls got to choose the dress of their dreams.”

Briana Olfano, a member of the prom committee, said the generosity of Chateau Briand  is amazing and the kindheartedness has truly humbled the senior class.

“Because of the Scotto's extreme generosity, more kids this year than any other year are planning to attend the prom,” Olfano said. “This will truly be one of the best proms that Long Beach has ever seen, and we owe it all to Chateau Briand and the Scotto family.”

Ashley Martin, a Long Beach High School senior, attended the prom dress party and said it was very helpful for some girls and that many of them found dresses for the prom.

“The dress party was amazing,” Martin said. “Donating the prom was so generous and the dress party was so unexpected.”

Martin said many seniors were considering not going to the prom because of financial situations, so the donation will allow those seniors to attend.

“The donation has made it much easier for my family since we are still in the process of rebuilding our home and I know it has helped many other families as well,” she said. 

Scotto said many other vendors came together to donate things for the prom after Chateau Briand decided to host. Florist donations and a few tuxedo donations were made to the prom as well. 

The Scotto Brothers, meanwhile, are “so appreciative” for the community support they have received in the past, according to Victoria Scotto.

Scotto put it this way: “Long Island cares about us and we care about the community just the same.” 


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