ORGANIZATION CLOTHES CHILDREN

“Sometimes you do for others,

even for people you don’t know.”

Lorain – The Lorain Morning Journal’s “Mary Lee Tucker Clothe-a-Child Program” has provided more than 600 area children with warm winter apparel so far this year.

Sunday a group of volunteers gathered at the Super K Mart in Lorain to shop for area kids. Organizers Tammy Tansey and Cynthia Simmons said that Saturday’s event was to outfit local kids with warm clothes. “We match a volunteer with one of the children and they will take them shopping for coats, gloves, shoes, pants, shirts – items that will help keep them warm and safe during the cold weather, Tansey said. “We help them out with providing items that maybe the parents haven’t been able to purchase for them.”

Tansey said that the kids are selected through a process that takes place in November, “We are not involved in that part of the program but each child is signed up and goes through a screening process and then the final list is created for the day of shopping.”

Through donations each child is allotted $100.00 worth of merchandise – Super K Mart also provides a 10% discount so the teams of volunteers and kids, with the calculator that was provided by the organizers, made the most of it getting as much as they could.

Simmons said that some of the volunteers have even gone over the $100.00 and covered the extra out of their own pockets. “They said that they were happy to do it because these kids are so appreciative and that puts the volunteers in an extra giving spirit.”
Saturday’s shopping day almost didn’t happen due to a low number of volunteers – that is until Tansey and Simmons got involved, made some phone calls to family and friends and as Tansey said – prayed. “We were shooting for 20 people to help out today and we ended up with 50 so we ended up turning volunteers away – that’s a good problem to have in this type of situation.”

Amongst the volunteers were employees from First Federal Savings of Lorain, Applewood Children Services, Family Services, Parker Hannifin and the Ohio State Highway Patrol. Trooper Chris Ausse was one of the volunteers on hand Saturday. Ausse said that when he heard about the need for volunteers and that it was helping children in need he didn’t hesitate. “I have a soft spot when it comes to events like this for children and to me it’s gives me a chance to show the public that Police Officers aren’t just about writing tickets – we like to give back to our community just like anyone else.”

Ausse cheated a little bit by bringing an extra set of hands to help him shop – 3 year old daughter Madaline. “I wanted her to come along so she can learn that sometimes you shop for others – sometimes you do for others, even for people you don’t know.

One of the parents who brought her children said she had a message for all of the volunteers and to those who donated; “God bless you, God bless you for what you do.”



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