Donations Needed for Kids' Clothing Drive

Each fall, the Milpitas Kiwanis, a volunteer service organization and local chapter of the international Kiwanis Club, helps students, whose families are strapped for cash, pick out new clothes at the Kohl's department store.

The event is scheduled for Aug. 7, but the club is short on funds and still needs to raise the last third of the $10,000.

The goal is to serve 100 students spread across nine elementary schools. About $100 can provide a Milpitas student with some new back-to-school clothes and uniforms. 

"We don't want to let any of these kids down," said Becky Strauss, president of the Milpitas Kiwanis. 

The city of Milpitas donated $750. And city officials such as Mayor Jose Esteves, Vice-Mayor Pete McHugh, Councilwoman Althea Polanski and Police Chief Dennis Graham have pledged to write checks from their own pocketbooks. 

Milpitas Kiwanis was one of two recipients from proceeds of the Milpitas Unified School District Crab Feed last spring. They participate in awarding scholarships, four this year, to students from the Calaveras Hills Continuation High School Class of 2010. 

The Milpitas Unified School District works with the elementary school principals to select students based on applications for the shopping spree.

Kiwanis/Kohl's Cares for Kids was a "natural marriage" between the club, whose mission is to improve the lives of children, and the department store program, said Dennis Knight of the Milpitas Kiwanis, who has coordinated the event with his wife, Lonnie, for many years. 

On the morning of the event, Kohl's employees open the doors early for the Kiwanis, and the store provides a 10 percent discount on purchases, said Knight.

Volunteers from Milpitas Kiwanis and the Milpitas High Key Club, a junior club part of the Kiwanis, will each chaperone a child. Parents fill out a form with clothing and shoe sizes and stay outside the store to avoid a conflict of interest.

"We want the event to be for the children and not influenced by parental pressure," said Knight. "We also don't want the parent shopping for themselves or for other members of the family. It works much better this way and we have very few conflicts."

Mike Mendizabal, Kiwanis member and former school board member, said in a previous interview that he remembered items the kids picked out, such as Spiderman belts and Little Mermaid socks.

"It's a fun event," he said. "You're taking a little kid through the store. You find them a pair of shoes that they like."

The first Milpitas Kiwanis summer "child spree," as it used to be called, started at Mervyn's before the department store closed. Since then, more chapters of the Kiwanis Club have started them in their own local areas, said Knight.

In the past, any leftover money has been saved for a winter spree to provide coats for a smaller group of kids or donated to the Milpitas Food Pantry which also provides uniforms for kids.

To make a tax-deductible contribution, checks can be made out to Milpitas Kiwanis and sent to: P.O. Box 360730, Milpitas 95036.