Twice a year, in the fall and spring, SaddleBrooke Community Outreach’s Kids’ Closet provides school wardrobes to children from pre-school through eighth grade living in towns along a 100+ mile corridor from Catalina north to Miami and San Carlos. By offering new clothing and shoes, this program helps to raise students’ self-respect while reducing the strain on their families limited budgets. And every student delights in being able to choose what they wear.
Kids’ Closet is located in “the big red building” in Mammoth. Students are brought to the facility on school buses on Mondays and Thursdays or on Saturdays by their parents. Inside, there is a waiting area where each child can select two grade-appropriate books to take home. In the shopping and fitting area, volunteers serve as personal shoppers, helping each child find clothing that fits. But the children make their own selections from the t-shirts, shorts or jeans, jackets or sweatshirts and shoes in stock. Students also receive underwear, socks and personal toiletry items, like toothbrushes and toothpaste. Dressing rooms and bins of clothing organized by size help to recreate the experience of shopping in a store.
During the 2025 to 2026 school year, Kids’ Closet clothed 1,495 students in the fall and 1,514 students in the spring. In addition to clothing, 1,372 backpacks filled with grade-appropriate school supplies were delivered to students in kindergarten through sixth grade.
We are already gearing up for the Kids’ Closet’s fall session for the 2026 to 2027 school year. Shipments of clothing, shoes and books are arriving and soon the warehouse bins will be full. But the engine that makes this program run is our volunteers. Our fall session is tentatively scheduled to begin on Thursday, September 10. If you would like to become a Kids’ Closet volunteer, send an email to Margaret Thompson at thompson7767@yahoo.com.
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