{"id":10469,"date":"2024-09-12T12:57:25","date_gmt":"2024-09-12T19:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bellingham\/?p=10469"},"modified":"2024-09-18T08:07:15","modified_gmt":"2024-09-18T15:07:15","slug":"operation-school-bell-clothing-students-for-success-in-2024-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bellingham\/2024\/09\/12\/operation-school-bell-clothing-students-for-success-in-2024-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Operation School Bell: Clothing Students for Success in 2024-2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Operation School Bell (OSB) is thrilled to announce the successful launch of our 2024-2025 program, bringing warmth and dignity to students across Whatcom County. Thanks to a generous budget increase and overwhelming community support, we&#8217;ve expanded our reach and impact this year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><b>Program Highlights<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>Increased Support:\u00a0 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We&#8217;ve purchased 2,044 JCPenney gift cards, each valued at $125, allowing us to serve more students than ever before.\u00a0 Our dedicated volunteers organized two work parties to prepare the gift cards, applying unique ALB labels and recording numbers for accurate tracking. We aim to distribute cards to all Whatcom County School Districts by the third week of September, ensuring students start the school year prepared.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">At the Bellingham School District Block Party on August 24th, five OSB committee members helped sign up 500 families along with the help of school volunteers.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">One grateful mother shared that OSB was the sole reason her son had a winter coat for the past two years, highlighting the critical need our program fulfills.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>How it works:<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><b>\u00a0 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">1. Gift cards are divided among eight school districts based on National School Lunch Program data for Whatcom County.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0 2. Out of 26,476 total students in the district, 13,201 are eligible for free or reduced lunch.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0 3. School family coordinators determine which families receive the gift cards.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0 4. Volunteers deliver card packets to schools, with usage beginning September 12th.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bellingham\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/90\/2024\/08\/AdobeStock_615895774-scaled.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-10424 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bellingham\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/90\/2024\/08\/AdobeStock_615895774-150x150.jpeg\" alt=\"photo of Boy holding hand up in class\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bellingham\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/90\/2024\/08\/AdobeStock_615895774-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bellingham\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/90\/2024\/08\/AdobeStock_615895774-80x80.jpeg 80w, https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bellingham\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/90\/2024\/08\/AdobeStock_615895774-100x100.jpeg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our success is only possible through the generosity of our community:\u00a0 Funding comes from thrift shop sales and donations. At recent events, we&#8217;ve seen an increase in community members offering to contribute to the program, potentially bringing in new Thrift Store shoppers and members.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">While we&#8217;re proud to assist 2,044 students this year (about 15.5% of eligible students), we aspire to do even more. We&#8217;re continuously working to expand our reach and support more families in need.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Operation School Bell has been a labor of love, and we&#8217;re excited to see the fruits of our efforts as students begin using their gift cards this September. We extend our heartfelt thanks to our tireless volunteers and generous community supporters who make this program possible.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Together, we&#8217;re not just providing clothes; we&#8217;re investing in the confidence and success of our community&#8217;s youth.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Operation School Bell (OSB) is thrilled to announce the successful launch of our 2024-2025 program, bringing warmth and dignity to students across Whatcom County. Thanks to a generous budget increase and overwhelming community support, we&#8217;ve expanded our reach and impact this year. \u00a0Program Highlights Increased Support:\u00a0 We&#8217;ve purchased 2,044 JCPenney gift cards, each valued at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72024,"featured_media":3737,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,56,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-operation-school-bell","category-programs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bellingham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bellingham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bellingham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bellingham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/72024"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bellingham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10469"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bellingham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10481,"href":"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bellingham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10469\/revisions\/10481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bellingham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bellingham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bellingham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bellingham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}