Operation School Bell Celebrates 20 Years in Diablo Valley

Operation School Bell began in 1958 when a teacher in the Los Angeles school district saw children from one family coming to school on a rotating basis. She discovered that the children came to school based on whose turn it was to wear the few clothes the family had on a given day. What began as a one-woman effort to provide clothing to disadvantaged children has become a nationally acclaimed philanthropic program of Assistance League.

Since 1994, Assistance League of Diablo Valley, one of 120 chapters, located at 2711 Buena Vista Avenue in Walnut Creek, has provided schoolchildren with clothing and a shoe voucher card which in turn, has improved school attendance, citizenship, and academic performance. The program began with 47 students at Buena Vista Elementary School in Walnut Creek. In more recent years, Assistance League of Diablo Valley has provided school district mandated uniforms in the Contra Costa community; presently, 85% of its elementary schoolchildren wear uniforms. Last year alone, 4,128 children benefited.

Operation School Bell’s ongoing success lies in its ability to anticipate the needs of children and respond in a relatively short period of time. One innovation involves retail shopping, where Operation School Bell member volunteers serve as personal shoppers to help students spend a designated amount of money on school clothing. What ensues calls for cutting edge strategizing to achieve that “Now, I’m ready” look.

Another innovation precludes busing expenses and loss of valuable class instruction time in that member volunteers transport clothing in various sizes to the school site for students to sample. Putting “Caring and Commitment into Action” springs to life when member volunteers don blue aprons, take clip boards in hand and stand ready to record the necessary information. As students enter the school’s multi-use room, their eager young eyes take in tables heaped with stacks of pants, sweatshirts, skorts and polo shirts—all arranged according to size. Once recorded, this information is then processed at the chapter house by yet another group of member volunteers who add six pairs of appropriately sized socks and underwear, as well as a shoe card, to the bags of clothing for each child. These filled bags are returned to the school site for distribution.

All of these venues explain a well-deserved celebration. And how better to celebrate its twentieth anniversary than by doing what Operation School Bell does best—provide clothing for children. To learn about Assistance League of Diablo Valley’s eight philanthropic programs that the thrift shop funds and its recently awarded GuideStar Exchange gold participation level status, please visit this website: diablovalley.assistanceleague.org or the GuideStar Exchange.

--Information and image provided by the Assistance League