Organization prepares bags with food, clothes and other items to children with help from three agencies
Ruth Mendes da Costa and other members of the Women’s Club of Hollister met at her house before the organization’s big giveaway last week by handling what seemed like an assembly line of goods.
It included “everything to think of that you need.”
And those needs are especially important for the recipients. For the third year, the Women’s Club last week gave away 100 backpacks full of food, clothing and other items to children associated with Child Protective Services, Emmaus House, Kinship Center and Chamberlain’s Children Center.
The group usually raises about $4,000 to $5,000 and this year brought in close to $4,000, she said. Women’s Club members hope to have some money left over for next year’s effort.
The goal is to provide for two days worth of emergency needs, Mendes da Costa said. The backpacks include such items as clothing, food, toothpaste, combs, conditioner – and anything else one might need in case of emergencies. The bags even included other “fun” items such as toys, coloring books and book lights, she said.
The club gave the backpacks to children from infants to age 17.
“Everyone we talk to, when the kids get this, their faces just light up,” she said.
Mendes da Costa said the group was happy this year to expand donations to involve Child Protective Services, which received a few bags last year but got the full 25 allotment in 2012.
She said the agency staff told the organization that many children involved are removed from families with drug issues.
“When they take children out of a drug situation, they’re not allowed to bring an article of clothing on them aside from what’s on their back,” she said, noting contaminants might be on the clothing. “They have nothing.”
