For thousands of local kids, back-to-school shopping is a luxury their families can’t afford. That all changes when they visit the Assistance League of Greater Portland’s Beaverton headquarters where racks of clothing fill the room, and shelves are stocked as high as the ceiling.
“Each girl will go home with two pairs of pants, two shirts, a winter coat, socks, underwear, and a dental kit,” says volunteer Leslie Anton.
Everything is new, and the students get to pick it out themselves.
“The boys go home with the same thing,” says Anton.
It’s all part of Operation School Bell®, a program started 21 years ago by Assistance League of Greater Portland. Back then, it was 35 coats. Now they provide clothing to more than 4,000 children a year in the Beaverton, Hillsboro and Portland public school districts.
“We don’t want kids to wear poverty to school,” says Anton. “We want them to look like everyone else at school.”
That means buying clothes the students actually like. Anton and fellow volunteer Peggy Albertine travel to Las Vegas every year and carefully select the latest trends at the OffPrice trade show. The goal is to create a little bit of magic for students and their parents.
“We have stories of kids coming in and trying on the coats and saying ‘Look, it has a tag! I’ve never had one with a tag,’” says Albertine.
Assistance League of Greater Portland is entirely volunteer-staffed. One hundred eighty women work year-round to run the nonprofit, operating two upscale resale stores to fund programs like Operation School Bell. No one gets paid, and they work long hours, but these Leaders in Learning say they can’t think of a more rewarding way to spend their time.
“We’ve had mamas come in, and they see the clothes the kids get, and they cry because they’re so grateful,” says Albertine.
The women say they don’t plan on slowing down anytime soon.
“I get out of it a real sense of accomplishment in making people happy and really filling a need that’s out there,” says Anton.
