Volunteer group raises money to purchase school clothes for local students

Group served 777 students from numerous districts with clothes, coats, shoes this year.
Pat Schaefer, left, Debbie Hazelbaker, middle, and Patti Hackett, all on board of trustees for Middletown Area Neediest Youth, show samples of baskets they will raffle off to raise money to help needy students in the area with clothing items. The baskets will be raffled at local basketball games in the areas they serve. NICK GRAHAM/STAFF

Credit: Nick Graham

Credit: Nick Graham

Pat Schaefer, left, Debbie Hazelbaker, middle, and Patti Hackett, all on board of trustees for Middletown Area Neediest Youth, show samples of baskets they will raffle off to raise money to help needy students in the area with clothing items. The baskets will be raffled at local basketball games in the areas they serve. NICK GRAHAM/STAFF

Pat Schaefer, who worked in a Middletown elementary school for years, remembers two sisters who frequently missed consecutive days of classes.

One girl would attend two days, then her sister would attend two days. They never were at school on the same day.

Later, Schaefer learned the sisters shared their only pair of shoes.

That’s just one story Schaefer said she could tell about how some local students don’t have the appropriate clothes, coats and shoes to wear to school.

So a tradition that started in the 1950s by Calvin W. Verity, former general manager of Armco and president of First National Bank and later chairman of the bank’s board, continues today and serves more students every year, said Schaefer, 91, who has served as board president of Middletown Area Neediest Youth (MANY).

Verity once said the goal of the program was so students “could attend school with dignity.”

The MANY program serves students who attend Middletown, Marshall, Edgewood, Monroe, Middletown Christian, John XXIII Elementary, Fenwick, Summit Academy, Madison, Franklin, and from those districts who attend Butler Tech, according to Schaefer.

She said MANY purchased clothing items for 777 students this year and exhausted most of its $75,000 budget. The volunteers hope to raise $79,000 next year, and donor solicitation letters will be mailed out soon, she said.

Schaefer said the need continues to grow and she pointed toward the demographics of the community. She said more students are living in single parent households or with their grandparents, aunts or uncles.

“Our community is changing that way,” she said. “I feel sorry for the kids.”

Kids who may need financial assistance with school clothes are pinpointed by bus drivers, teachers and school counselors, Schaefer said.

When a student is selected, their parent, guardian or teacher is given a $100 voucher to purchase clothes at Kohl’s. The department store then turns in the vouchers to MANY volunteers who reimburse the store.

Each school is allotted a certain number of vouchers, said Schaefer, who added the student’s name isn’t attached to any of the documents.

The program has “worked real well,” she said.

Debbie Hazelbaker, secretary of MANY, said it’s important for students to wear appropriate clothes if they’re expected to have a “good self image of themselves.”

Some students in the program have never owned new clothes, and when they walk into Kohl’s, they don’t know where their department is located, Hazelbaker said.

Schaefer said the all-volunteer MANY group operates with no overhead. When it’s time to mail out solicitation letters to possible donors, the volunteers purchase the paper and envelopes and pay for the postage, she said.

MANY is funded through private donations and local foundations, Schaefer said.

The group also raises money by raffling off gift baskets at high school basketball games at the districts it serves.


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