Volunteers have been sorting through a mountain of shoes in the gym at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Barrington this summer to prepare for the first ever Back to School Clothing Event hosted by Barrington Giving Day on an upcoming Saturday in August.
They’re debuting the Back to School event to complement Barrington Giving Day, which is a day each December when families of students in the Barrington 220 School District Free & Reduced lunch program receive donated coats, blankets, books & gifts right before Christmas. Giving Day Executive Director, Pat Karon, says the new Back to School initiative is all about helping these same students in another season when the need is great so they don’t have to wait until the holidays for clothes and shoes they could use in the fall.
“The children don’t get to choose where they come from and so we want them to go back to school with new clothing, the same as their other classmates whose parents have the ability to provide more.” Pat mailed about 700 invitations to the Back-to-School Giving Day and is expecting about 350 families will attend.
I recently ran into Pat and other Giving Day volunteers at a Girls Night Out fundraiser Heinen’s Fine Foods hosted to support the cause. Pat told me they realized how great the need for shoes was when they noticed something unexpected last December. “We offered new shoes at our last Giving Day. We had about 600 pairs of shoes and they were gone within the first hour.”
So she applied for and received a grant from the Barrington Area Community Foundation. Then they added additional money and went out and bought $10,000 worth of shoes.
St. Matthew Lutheran Church Lay Minister Sue Mullen says they had been looking for a way to help the community with a back to school event and that partnering with Giving Day is a perfect fit. “With their credibility and track record in the community, it has just made it much more fun and so much easier.” St. Matthew is offering the space in their gym, their volunteers and their time to help make it all happen.
Sue says they’re working hard to make it a special event for all invited. “A childhood memory is being able to go shopping for school clothes before the school year starts and these kids don’t have that opportunity.”
“So we have invited the students to stop by the church gym to pick out their own shoes and clothes so they can get the supplies they need with the feel of that back to school shopping experience. We’ll be treating these students as our guests, we’ll be serving lunch and we hope that we will have more than enough clothes for everyone so they can do some shopping.”
Giving Day volunteer Patti Britton says she’s involved for one simple reason. “No child should go back to school without new clothes, new shoes and feeling excited about the new school year. It’s all about the children.”
If you’d like to help Barrington Giving Day’s Back to School Clothing initiative, their collection drive ends on July 29th.
They’ve set up donation boxes to collect gently-used clothing and shoes for children from birth to age 18 at the following locations:
* Local churches
* Barrington Village Hall (200 S. Hough Street)
* Public Safety Building (400 N. Northwest Highway)
* The Barrington Park District (235 Lions Drive)
If you’d like to make a cash donation, they say that would also help them greatly.
CLICK HERE to make a contribution online.
For more information about how to get involved, visit StMatthewBarrington.org and to learn more about Barrington Giving Day, visit their website at BarringtonGivingDay.org.
