Operation School Bell started in someone’s garage more than 30 years ago.
Today, the volunteer program fills a warehouse with boxes of back-to-school supplies and new clothes for needy elementary students in Boise, Kuna and West Ada districts.
The massive volunteer program begins with the Assistance League of Boise, which is funded by a small Garden City thrift store that generates $1 million each year. It’s open Wednesday through Saturday for dropping off items or shopping for hand-picked, new-to-you treasures.
The Assistance League uses the money generated from the thrift store to support a variety of programs, including Operation School Bell. This year, hundreds of students benefitted.
“I was raised by a single mom, so I would have benefited from these programs as a young student,” said Rebecca Kochvar, who has volunteered with the Assistance League of Boise since 2012. “It definitely feels like a real joy for me to be able to do this for students that would have been me in kindergarten through sixth grade.”
Here’s how it works:
Counselors and educators select students in need of clothes and supplies during the first days of school.
These students are then transported in buses to the Assistance League of Boise’s “store,” a large room resembling the children’s clothing section of a department store, complete with racks of puffer coats, full-length mirrors and changing rooms. After choosing their new clothes, students get fitted for a new pair of shoes in another room.
Volunteers — largely retired women — help kids find what fits.
Even around 100 preschoolers will benefit this year. They’re too young to shop so Assistance League volunteers prepare bags of clothes, like care packages, and they are delivered to school counselors.
Assistance League buyers hand-pick the selection of clothes to be modern and stylish so the kids fit in at school.
Eli, an Amity Elementary fourth grader, said he’d never been shopping for new clothes before, until his trip to the warehouse where he picked out his favorite stuff.
Thousands of students like Eli can qualify for assistance from Operation School Bell — one of around 10 programs the Assistance League of Boise offers.
For middle and high school students, the Assistance League’s Teen Retail program partners with JCPenney to provide students with a $200 voucher to go shopping. The students get new clothes and shoes.
