Building Confidence & Equity
Operation School Bell’s goal is to improve local school children’s dignity, health, and school participation by helping them shed some of the visual stigma of poverty, attend school in inclement weather, and assimilate in their school environment.
Operation School Bell allows a child to select “new” school clothing and shoes that “fit” and they are “proud” to wear to school.
Well fitting, weather appropriate clothing supports a child’s health and improves school attendance.
Clothing a child is proud to wear boosts self-esteem and increases academic focus.
Operation School Bell provides clothing to kindergarten-12th grade children in the Saddleback Valley and Capistrano Unified School Districts.
This program changes the lives and educational experience of young children.
Please join us in giving children the confidence they need to succeed in school!
PROGRAM REVIEW
BETTER TOGETHER
Thank you to Mission Viejo Target and Foothill Ranch Target for working with us to provide school clothing to children in need.
HISTORY
OPERATION SCHOOL BELL program originated in Los Angeles. Mrs. Ruth Ann Montgomery, a teacher, noted that three brothers attended school on a rotating basis. Upon discovering their attendance was based on which boy got to wear the available clothing that day, she decided to create a “Clothes Closet” filled with gently-used clothing gathered from friends and family. Her students were allowed to choose clothing from the Clothes Closet so all could attend school regularly. In 1954, Mrs. Montgomery moved to Bakersfield. There, she organized a group called NATIONAL ASSISTANCE LEAGUE®. OPERATION SCHOOL BELL became the signature philanthropic program for this organization, providing new, appropriate, well-fitting clothing for low-income children, thus increasing their self-esteem and acceptance by their peers.