Twice a year, in the fall and spring, SaddleBrooke Community Outreach (SBCO) provides school wardrobes and school supplies to children living in towns along the Copper Corridor, from Catalina north to Miami and San Carlos. Kids’ Closet serves children from pre-school through eighth grade, while Teen Closet assists students in ninth through twelfth grade. By offering new clothing and shoes, both programs help to raise kids’ self-esteem while reducing the strain on their families’ already limited budgets.
Teen Closet shopping days are held on multiple evenings in January and July at the Target and Ross Dress for Less stores in Oro Valley. Schools identify students entering ninth grade who would benefit from the program based on family need. To continue in Teen Closet, each student must attend school regularly, attain a passing GPA, and perform six hours of community service each semester to receive $250 to purchase clothing, shoes and school supplies. Students who graduate from high school in the spring are given one last shopping trip in July when they can purchase items for their dorm rooms or apartments in addition to clothing.
This July, 98 students from six high schools in the SBCO service area were met by an adult volunteer who served as the student’s shopping mentor. The students included 11 graduating seniors with 42 returning tenth through twelfth graders and 45 new ninth graders. A total of 60 men and women volunteered to serve as shopping mentors, assisting from one to three times during the week of shopping. Teen Closet gives teenagers the opportunity to attend school with pride in person, knowing that they have earned this benefit through their hard work and mindfulness of the needs of others in their community. The next Teen Closet event will be held in January 2025. If you would like to help a student shop, email sbco.teen.closet@community-outreach.org
so your name can be added to the volunteer list.
Kids’ Closet is located in “the big red building” in Mammoth. Students are taken on school buses on Mondays and Thursdays or, on Saturdays, by their parents, to the facility. Inside, there is a waiting area where each child can select two grade-appropriate books to take home. In the “zoo room”—named for the colorful animals painted on the walls by the SaddleBrooke Fine Arts Guild – volunteers serve as personal shoppers, helping each child find clothing that fits. But the children make their own selections from the t-shirts, shorts or jeans, jackets or sweatshirts and shoes in stock. Students also receive underwear, socks and personal toiletry items, like toothbrushes and toothpaste. Dressing rooms and bins of clothing organized by size help to recreate the experience of shopping in a store. Between the fall season, which this year runs from Monday, September 23 to Sunday, December 8, and the spring season, from late January or early February through April, Kids’ Closet provides approximately 3,000 wardrobes each year. Backpacks filled with grade-appropriate school supplies are delivered directly to schools for distribution. If you would like to become a Kids’ Closet volunteer, email Margaret Thompson at thompson776a7@yahoo.com.
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