Church lends a helping hand to foster kids

This past Wednesday, more than 20 people gathered in a small room to do big things.

For a decade now, Boulder City’s St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church has helped put a smile on the faces of children, who often need it the most. Their annual clothing drive for foster children in Southern Nevada had provided new outfits to children to wear as they start a new school year.

Darlene Dufault said the church purchases most of the clothing as part of an outreach program that benefits various charities all year, which includes Christmas stockings and food for the homeless.

“For 10 years we’ve been collecting clothing or donations for clothing for kids,” she said. “Over the years we’ve helped more than 3,200 kids, not counting this year.”

This year proved to be their most successful year to date as they had enough clothing for 630 outfits (tops and bottoms) as well as 603 pairs of socks.

During the sorting process, the volunteers match the clothes to create an outfit of pants and shirts by sizes to present to kids ages 5 to 18. All the clothing is brand new. The children receive new shoes and backpacks from other agencies.

“We don’t take any used clothing because these children deserve to have a brand-new outfit to wear to school,” Dufault said. “Once it’s all collected and sorted, we provide the clothing to foster care agencies in Clark County. Most of it goes to Peggy’s Attic (in Las Vegas) where the children can go and have a shopping spree at the end of July.”

According to its website, “Peggy’s Attic is the donation center for Clark County Department of Family Services, serving children touched by the family courts by providing clothing, shoes, toys, diapers, toiletry items, developmental toys, school supplies, and many other items free of charge.”

All the clothing collected or purchased by the church is for foster children or those at Child Haven, she said.

In terms of how St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church began this annual clothing drive, Dufault said she had a long career in social services, so when she joined the church, she asked how her fellow parishioners felt.

“We started doing it and it started out slow and then it got bigger and bigger and bigger,” she said. “Now we’re doing it every year.”

She went on to say, “It’s a wonderful thing to give back, especially to children in need. It’s so rewarding for us and wonderful to see the children picking out their outfits. We make sure we get cute and current styles of clothing we know they’ll like. We don’t get old-lady things. Our church is known for our outreach. A big percentage of our budget goes to outreach after we pay the bills. Our parishioners are very giving.”

During last week’s sorting process, Dufault said the majority of the clothing was purchased by financial donations from parishioners or those from the community. Just a small percentage of the new clothing was bought and dropped off.

Donna Raney, a church parishioner who again volunteered to sort the clothing, said, “I can only imagine the confusion and/or disillusion that a child in foster care must feel. If new clothes for school helps give them self-esteem and lets them feel better about themselves, then I will always help any way that I can.”