New clothes are always in fashion—and sometimes a necessity.
The Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties’ Assistance Leagues are combining forces to provide their Operation School Bell Program for 2009. They’ll be helping Santa Maria Valley students in need shop for school clothes and supplies they wouldn’t be able to afford without the program.
This month marks the fourth year Operation School Bell has been helping youth in the community by providing school clothes for students in need.
Since 1969, assistance league volunteers have clothed 22,000 students living in the district, stretching from Santa Barbara to San Luis Obispo. Students are identified by the schools’ administration offices and are then referred to the Assistance League, which focuses on providing clothing, backpacks, and health kits for kindergarteners through sixth graders.
The leagues boast approximately 300 members each, who together volunteer more than 34,000 hours each year to make 11 philanthropic projects happen. The league is an all-volunteer nonprofit.
On March 28 from 9 a.m. to noon, representatives from both chapters will host a shopping event at the Santa Maria Target store, where children from low-income families will get the opportunity to shop for essential items to wear during the rest of the school year. Dianne Schneider, Atascadero resident and local chapter president, said “Many of these children have never had anything new to wear to school.”
For more information, call Assistance League partner Roxanne Cameron at 794-2902 or visit assistanceleaguesb.org.
Intern Gabby Hendriksen compiled this week’s Community Corner. Send comments or ideas to the Sun via e-mail at intern@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 19-26, 2009.