The school experience can be a challenge for any young student, but it’s much harder when Kids don’t have the essential clothing they need.
That’s why the Rotary Club of Redmond regularly steps in to help.
The Rotary Club showed up at the Redmond School District building Tuesday morning to distribute new, high-quality coats and shoes through Operation Warm.
It’s giving to the non-profit Family Access Network (FAN) to distribute to students in need throughout the district.
“This year they donated 500 pairs of shoes, 50 coats and a basket of socks,” said FAN advocate Kelli Wolford.
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Fundraisers throughout the year allowed the Rotary Club to collect the much-needed items.
“We’ve done it four years in a row and we love doing this.” said Rotary Club President Joe Kosanovic. “You know that the kids are going to be happy walking around with shoes and going to be warm in the winter with the coats. And we got socks from boombas and that was an added plus as well.”
Coming together to make sure no child goes without.
“The kids are wearing hand-me-downs and now they have a new pair of shoes. Colorful, if you look at all the different color shoes. All the different sizes,” said Kosanovic. “It’s really important. It gives the kids self esteem.”
“It’s really disheartening when you have a student walk in and you don’t have an item to help support the family,” said Wolford. “When you have that student walk in and you have that shoe size that they need and they can walk out of our office, it’s a wonderful feeling.”
A feeling to be passed along from helping hands, to grateful hearts.
