Standing in a room full of school clothes for girls, Jean Maley peruses one of the gently used books that has been donated for the Assistance League to give to a child in need. The Assistance League has been helping those in need in Roswell since 1960. (Curtis Michaels Photo)
Roswell has a secret and everyone should know it. That secret is the Assistance League of Chaves County (Roswell).
Roswell’s Assistance League is over 50 years old and has improved the lives of thousands of Roswellians. And since the organization doesn’t seek publicity, many people don’t know what it is or how it helps Roswell.
Jean Maley is the marketing communications chair and has been president of the organization.
“We identify needs and try to meet them by getting a philanthropic program set up legally with agreements after it’s voted on my membership and approved by the national organization that sets legal guidelines,” Maley said.
The members are prepared to end programs when they are no longer needed as well. “We meet each year in February in small groups in homes to evaluate our programs and see what’s needed,” Maley said. “We see if anyone has ideas for meeting new needs that are coming up. We go through a process for starting programs and for ending programs.”
Among the programs they no longer offer are swimming lessons for special needs children and others, Art ‘n Parts with the Roswell Schools, and Reach for Recovery for breast cancer patients through the American Cancer Society.
Their program, Operation School Bell®, has been ongoing since 1958 and is more needed now than ever before. Operation School Bell is for kids who have been identified by their school administration as needing school clothes. The kids are given enough new school clothes to last a week, including underwear. They also receive a hygiene package, a new jacket and a book.
Roswell’s Assistance League started its thrift shop in its building at 2601 N. Aspen Ave. to support Operation School Bell and any other programs they might begin. “The thrift shop idea was to help fund purchasing the new clothes for the kids,” Maley said. “It started getting too big and they were able to buy a second facility at 100 N. Union Ave.”
Assistance League active for nearly 60 years
“The group started in 1957 through 1960,” Maley said. “As they were identifying needs in Chaves County and working toward them they decided to make it official. As an organization they went through one that had already started up in California known as Assistance League. It was officially founded in 1960. This is our 57th year in September.”
Always open to new ways to benefit the community, they have run many programs in Roswell.
“Over the years they started new things,” Maley said. “One was the Art ‘n Parts program for second graders. Our members would take copies of master paintings into second grade classrooms and help students identify shapes and colors and then make their own pictures. That was helping to meet the need of art in education starting young, at the second grade level.
“They were still doing that when I joined in the 2005-2006 school year. It no longer worked with the school curriculum so we stopped doing that.”
They help adults as well.
“Another one was to help breast cancer patients,” Maley said. “We did what was called Reach for Recovery through the American Cancer Society. We made bags with pillows in them that were helpful to women who had undergone breast cancer surgery. We stopped when that was no longer needed.”
Their biggest program seems to be growing still.
“We expected Operation School Bell to be stopped because there was no more need,” Maley said. “But it seems each year it’s needed more and we’re glad when people find us and get the help that we can provide.” Maley recalled something that happened during Operation School Bell that, she said, will stay with her.
“At our Make a Difference day in October this past year, we did as we always do,” Maley said. “The kids who had an appointment for Operation School Bell for that day to get their clothes were given not one book but two because we had collected extra books for them. “Sue Evans, a retired teacher, was helping Jesus Altamirano pick a book. He picked up the book ‘How Things Work in the House’ because he recognized a project in the book that he already knew how to do. Sue said to him, ‘If you already know how to do that, do you want another book?’ and he said ‘No, I want to learn from this book how to fix everything around the house. I want to keep this book.’”
Operation School Bell and their other programs are funded largely through the thrift store.
“The thrift store now pays about 90 percent of the purchases for Operation School Bell,” Maley said. “To supplement that, we pay dues as members and we get grants from the Hubbard Foundation and from the New Mexico Children’s Foundation. We also get generous donations.”
Some programs the Assistance League offers touch upon some of the most painful parts of our community.
“Kids Are Pretty Special (KAPS) is a program we do with CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates),” Maley said. “When children are removed from a house, sometimes they don’t have a stitch on. … They need diapers, wipes and clothes to remove them from the home. That’s what we do. CASA always needs diapers and wipes and car seats”
Maley continued: “We buy 50 new backpacks for the homeless and fill them with snacks, warm mittens, gloves, they even make blankets to stuff in the backpacks. They are very full when we give them to the Salvation Army, which gives them out to people that need them.”
Another of their programs celebrates people who might not otherwise have much company.
“We’ve adopted Sunset Villa Nursing Home,” Maley said. “We throw a birthday celebration each month for the residents who have a birthday. We bring a cake and vouchers for either a beauty salon or a barber shop. Everyone at the nursing home likes to come to those parties.”
The Assistance League also reaches out to some of Roswell’s cultural bastions.
“Each month when the Roswell Museum and Art Center has artist receptions we host it,” Maley said. “We have three or four members who help serve the wine and refreshments. And the Assisteens® serve as ushers at Roswell Symphony Orchestra concerts.”
Sometimes items in the thrift store don’t sell. They’ve created a way to benefit others when that happens.
“Pass it on is something we do when items are not selling at the thrift store even after price cuts,” Maley said. “We don’t like to waste anything. If it hasn’t sold after our 50 percent off and 75 percent off sales we give them to Jireh Ministries at the baptist church where they give to people in need. We also give to the Kids Closet through St. Peter’s Church, and we give to Christian Ministries in Ruidoso. We’re always looking for thrift stores that might welcome some hand-me-downs.”
The laws governing nonprofits are strict, and the Assistance League is careful to comply with them.
“One nonprofit isn’t supposed to give money to another nonprofit,” Maley said. “Turkeys and Tortillas was an idea started by the Assisteens. They have a tradition of baking holiday breads for the November meeting to sell for $5 a loaf, and all the money that is collected from the members who buy them goes to buying turkeys and tortillas for the community Thanksgiving program that Johnny Gonzalez runs.”
Recently, they purchased a number of long tables, so that their meeting attendants would be able to do more at the meetings. The source of those funds was very carefully documented.
“We are very careful that what is donated for Operation School Bell or CASA or KAPS goes to the people that it was intended for,” Maley said. “Everything earned at the thrift store is designated for our philanthropic programs. That’s why it’s nonprofit. We’re very careful to keep our non-profit status so people don’t pay taxes for things they’ve purchased there.”
There are two groups within the Assistance League’s organization that have increased in size, outreach and effectiveness. One is Las Lianas, the professional women’s arm of the Assistance League, which organized the Silver Belles project. The other is Assisteens.
“Silver Belles are girls who are chosen by the senior school counselors,” Maley said. “The girl has to be a senior in high school and be in good standing. We don’t look at grades so much as we do at volunteering and attendance and citizenship. It’s more character related than it is academic related. It’s an honorary award, not a monetary one.
“They are invited to a meeting with Las Lianas and they are given a silver bell, and a certificate and a write-up in the paper.”
Along with other programs they run or assist with, Assisteens help with the RMAC block party in October and they make blankets for the teens in the CASA program.
“We have had Assisteens who graduated high school and then became adult members of the Assistance League,” Maley said. “Jessica Burson was one of them, Miss Roswell and Miss New Mexico. When she came to help us dress kids at Operation School Bell she wore her crown and she let the girls put it on. The girls all wanted to be like her.”
The Assistance League has a special projects program that runs the Buddy Walk Southeast New Mexico Down Syndrome Foundation and the Santa’s Breakfast for children with Down Syndrome.
The league also works with the Assurance Home to adopt a family at Christmas.
The Assistance League is proud to be inclusive.
“We’re very careful about being non-political, non-religious and we’re open to all,” Maley said. “There aren’t any limits as far as gender either. The focus is not on those things that may divide us because we have different opinions and different experiences but it’s those things that we can do together to help.”
Maley said they feel especially grateful for the people of Roswell, who have made their work possible.
“We feel so blessed because people in Roswell donate to our thrift store and they bring in gently used clothes, and household items and furniture,” Maley said. “Without them we couldn’t do what we do. Our store is all volunteer so we can often charge less than other thrift stores.”
To work with the Assistance League or to ask questions of them you can call 622-5255 or stop by the thrift store at the corner of West First Street and North Union Avenue.
