Community Corner

Operation School Bell, Helping Kids in Need Buy New Clothes for School

The Assistance League of The Eastside organizes the annual event for low-income kids from Northshore, Lake Washington and Bellevue schools.

The all-volunteer member organization, the Assistance League of the Eastside is gearing up for its annual event to help children in need with a new school wardrobe, Operation School Bell.

Operation School Bell allows low income students from local schools the opportunity to buy new school clothes. For three nights each October, Fred Meyer stores in Kirkland, Redmond and Bellevue sponsor the shopping spree. League volunteers help children, selected by their school nurses or councilors, to pick out and try on new clothes. Each child has about $100 to spend. In addition, each child is given a hand-made hat and scarf from the league's volunteer knitters. A local dentist provides bags of dental hygiene products for each child.

“You don’t think something like a bag of dental hygiene things would be exciting to a kid,” said . “But I heard one boy tell his mom, ‘Look, a new toothbrush, now I don’t have to share,’ it’s moments like that, that get to me.”

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Providing children with new school clothing, and the resulting increase in self-esteem and school attendance, contributes to a strong foundation for a child’s successful educational experience, according to the League’s website. Each year, the volunteers organize the local shopping events for over 2650 children in need, selected by school personnel, from the Lake Washington, Bellevue and Northshore school districts.

Students, accompanied by adult family members, are scheduled to shop on specific evenings at the store nearest Fred Meyer to their school. Chapter members and community volunteers assist the families throughout the experience, helping with their selections and calculating their totals. Assistance League of the Eastside provides a gift card, given by chapter members to the cashiers at checkout. The entire gift card amount must be used on the scheduled shopping date and only purchases of school appropriate clothing and shoes are permitted. Finally, students get to select a one-of-a-kind, hand-knitted scarf or hat. Members and volunteers knit year-round to provide stylishly attractive knitted accessories from which the students get to choose.

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 For more information, check the Assistance League of the Eastside website.


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