Kiwanis Club provides clothes for students in need

The Kiwanis Club of Waxahachie, a service club, recently created a free clothes closet for Waxahachie ISD students in need.

The clothes closet allows students in need to shop from a selection of brand-new clothes. Items in the closet include shirts, pants, dresses, shorts, socks, underwear, hair accessories, shoes, hygiene items and more.

“Most of these kids, they’re used to hand me downs or going to a thrift store, which there’s nothing wrong with that,” director Debbie Timmermann said. “We just felt like as long as we can do it, we want to stay with new clothes, just like a little store.”

“You get to pull your tags off,” Elias Carreon, president-elect, added. “You know it’s brand new on the first day of school. It’s just a little bit extra feeling.”

WISD counselors inform the Kiwanis Club of a student in need, and a club member sets up a time to meet with the family at the clothes closet. The child goes shopping for what they need and picks out their own brand-new clothes. Carreon said the club is only sent sizes of the child and what clothing items they might need. The names of the children and the family are kept confidential.

If they don’t have the child’s size in the item they need, a member of the club will buy it.

“If we don’t have sizes, we find out what, and then we take our money and go over to Walmart or someplace … and get them what they need,” Timmermann said.

One time, Timmermann shared, a child needed a pair of shoes because he didn’t have any. The club didn’t have a pair in his size, but he continued to push his foot into a small shoe.

“They’re too small,” his mom said.

“No, I can get them to work,” he said.

The club bought him the right-sized shoes.

Carreon shared about a time he met a family at the clothes closet.

“School had just started,” he said. “He had no clothes. He wore the same thing, I think, for the first week of school.”

As the child was shopping for his clothes, there were only two pairs of pants that fit him.

“He was like I’ll just take one and leave one for somebody,” Carreon said. “(I told him to) take it because he needed it. That’s the thing is most of these people are so grateful, they don’t want to take because they want to leave it for someone else.”

The Kiwanis Club also supplies underwear to the nurses at WISD schools and pants to the pre-k campus, in case of accidents.

While members began having informational meetings in Waxahachie monthly in fall 2021, the club was officially founded on Feb. 7, 2022. Claude Cunningham, sponsor and mentor from the Kiwanis Club of Mansfield, has guided them throughout the process of launching the club. A Kiwanis Club was previously organized in Waxahachie in 1971 but was later disbanded in the early 2000s.

Kiwanis International focuses on improving the lives of children through various service projects, according to its website. The club’s motto is “serving the children of the world.”

Soon after the club’s inception, Timmermann pitched the idea of creating a clothes closet for WISD students in need.

“We got to talking about school,” Timmermann said. “Waxahachie Care gives out shoes to kids, and the school district gives out supplies. While we were sitting in the meeting, I made that comment (that) Care gives this, and the school district gives this, so why can’t we give every kid, every needy kid, not used but brand-new clothes to start the school year with. Everybody loved it, then we just needed a space.”

Timmermann approached Dr. Jerry Hollingsworth, WISD superintendent, shared the club’s idea for a clothes closet, and asked if there was a space they could use for it. Within a couple days, Hollingsworth found a space for the closet at Coleman Junior High, located at 1000 N. U.S. Highway 77.

Andy Reeves and the WISD maintenance team cleaned out the room and painted the walls, so it was ready for the clothes closet.

“I just can’t say enough good things about our maintenance guys and the district because they’ve really supported (us),” Timmermann said.

In July 2022, they launched a fundraiser called Christmas in July to raise funds and collect clothes, so the clothes closet could be available for students at the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year. Timmermann said the WISD marketing team, Jenny Bridges, Sandy King, Ami Trull and Joan Penny, helped the Kiwanis Club spread the word about the fundraiser.

In August, they provided clothes for many different families and have continued to provide clothes and shoes to students as needs arise.

Other service projects by the Kiwanis Club include filling Easter eggs with candy and assembling cake kits for Waxahachie Care.

WISD counselors are already building a spreadsheet with clothing sizes for this year’s Christmas in July fundraiser. Timmermann said the Kiwanis Club is grateful for donations made by Oddfellows No. 80 and Waxahachie Care.

In August, the Kiwanis Club of Waxahachie will be recognized at the 2023 Texas Oklahoma Kiwanis District Convention for the work its members have accomplished in their first year as a club.

Those interested in joining the Kiwanis Club of Waxahachie can attend one of their monthly meetings held at the clothes closet, located by the entrance near Walmart on Northgate Drive, on the first Monday of each month at noon and the third Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m.

To donate new clothes or funds, email waxahachiekiwanis@gmail.com. For more information, follow @Kiwanis Club of Waxahachie, Texas on Facebook. To learn more about Kiwanis’ history, visit https://www.kiwanis.org/about/history.

Originally published April 19, 2023 - https://www.waxahachiesun.com/business/kiwanis-club-provides-clothes-for-students-in-need/article_d6adf220-defe-11ed-b9d3-2f5260a76511.html