Submitted by Didi Manley, Assistance League Birmingham
The storage room at Assistance League Birmingham’s headquarters is filled with children’s clothing in every size.
With the arrival of fall, the volunteers at Assistance League Birmingham have been hard at work preparing to provide Birmingham area schoolchildren with new clothes for school.
Through their Operation School Bell program, over 42 schools in the area will bring a busload of elementary children, identified by their counselors as needing assistance, to the Assistance League headquarters in Homewood to be fitted for new school clothes. There, students will try on their clothes to be sure they fit, and the volunteers will make sure they have a shirt in their favorite color or depicting their favorite sport. They will leave with a bag containing two pairs of jeans, three T-shirts, a hoodie, underwear, socks and a hygiene kit. They will also get to pick out a new book and pencils while they are there.
The kids are excited to take a field trip from school initially, but when they discover that they get to keep the clothes in the tote bag, they become even more excited. For some students, it is the first time they have had brand new clothes that were not handed down. Providing students with new school clothes has been shown to strengthen self-esteem, promote school attendance and inspire scholastic achievement.
Since 1985, Assistance League has clothed over 35,000 Birmingham area school children. They fund this program through grants, philanthropy and donations, plus sales from Encore Thrift Store and their annual Gala. There are storage rooms at their Homewood headquarters neatly arranged with boys or girls’ clothing in every size. The summer is spent replenishing the stock and sorting the clothing to be ready for the new school year.
In September, as the first schools came to the Assistance League, there was a lot of excitement from both the children and the volunteers. Seeing the children’s faces light up and reading some of the sweet thank you notes they write more than compensates for the volunteers’ hard work.
Submitted by Didi Manley, Assistance League Birmingham
