Special Halloween volunteers
Vivian Errico
On October 27, Kids’ Closet volunteers donned their Halloween best in preparation of meeting the Miami School District’s, second and third grade students. This was the third visit by the Bejarano School, Kindergarten through third grade school. Miami’s two other schools servicing grades four through eight will visit later in this session. It is estimated that with the addition of approximately 500 students from Miami, SBCO will provide approximately 2,000 wardrobes for the fall.
Miami, Arizona sits 67 miles northwest of Kids’ Closet building in Mammoth, AZ. The town of Miami, once a copper mining center, now has a population with approximately 20% of its residents falling at or below the U.S. poverty line. The city has three schools servicing grades K-12.
To visit the Closet the children, accompanied by their teachers and the school principal, board school buses for the one-hour and 15 minute drive to the Closet. Once there each child is greeted by a volunteer who provides an individual “shopping” experience. After their shopping is done they board their buses once more to make the hour and 15 minute drive back to their schools.
With the addition of Miami’s 500 students, Kids’ Closet volunteers will dress over 2,000 children from 17 schools from eight school districts. Each child will leave the Closet with new pants, shirts, shoes and socks, a jacket and sweatshirt, underwear and toiletries. In addition they will receive two books at their individual reading level. This session runs from September through early December. A spring session will begin late January and run through May when these children will once again make the two-hour trip for another brand new wardrobe.
It’s a long day for both children and volunteers, but there were smiles on all of the faces when leaving the building. The children loved that the volunteers put on their Halloween finery just for them.