Every August when I write about Kevin Buckel's Adopt-A-Family Uniform Drive, I also write a check. I feel compelled to because it's such a perfect program and helps so many children.
I know that every dollar raised goes to buy school uniforms, and I love getting thank you notes from the kids. Usually, the notes are from elementary school students, and they're illustrated with rainbows and crooked houses and smiling children wearing new uniforms. But last year, I got a note from a junior high student that took up a whole page.
She said her house had burned down and that she did not know where she would end up or how her parents would find the money to buy her and her brothers new uniforms and other clothes. She explained how worried she was about her future.
"Then about a week before school I found out that we had uniforms," she wrote. "I was so happy I was jumping out of my skin. That means that we are one step closer to getting our new home and getting everyone situated. You have made a really big step in our lives, and I can't thank you enough."
Her words reminded me of the whole purpose of the program, and why Buckel began it back in the '90s.
In 1992, touched by the poverty of many New Orleans families, he dreamed up his nonprofit Adopt-A-Family program, a way for groups with something to give to help families living on the edge. He asked schools, civic groups and church groups to collect household goods for people who'd lost their belongings in a fire or were moving out of a shelter into an apartment. It helped families dealing with a crisis.
His Adopt-A-Family Uniform Drive grew out of his program. When he was getting Adopt-A-Family started, New Orleans public schools were adding uniforms, and parents would tell him uniforms for their kids were what they needed most.
He figured out a plan that has been outfitting the city's neediest children for more than two decades. It works like this:
People send contributions in any amount, and school social workers identify students and use $50 vouchers to buy two complete uniforms for them. Everyone who supports the program gets a thank-you note and a receipt for the uniform purchase.
Buckel, who moved to Long Beach, Miss., years ago, works with school social workers to make sure uniforms go to the students most in need, and two local businesses help with the paperwork and costs of running the drive.
Staff members at Pedelahore & Company, a New Orleans accounting firm, copy and mail the receipts and send out the thank-you notes, and the company also donates the postage.
Cynthia Cabibi Bird writes the checks and does the bookkeeping, and her father's law firm, Cabibi and Cabibi in Metairie, does an audit every year to make sure all the money goes towards uniforms.
"All of us, working together, make a good team," Buckel said, when I talked to him a few days ago. "Every year, when the checks start coming in, I feel a certain responsibility and obligation to make sure we're doing it right."
Last year, one of the most successful since Hurricane Katrina, the drive outfitted 970 students across the New Orleans area. This year, the needs are as great as ever, and schools are already opening.
At Arise Academy on St. Claude Avenue, which opened this past week, school social worker Kathleen Stevens sent Buckel a request to cover 51 of her students.
"I had more requests than I usually have," she said, when I talked to her on Wednesday. "I am surrounded by uniforms in my office."
She was grateful that Buckel was able to get them to her so quickly.
"I sent him an email, and he approved my request in a day, and I had the uniforms a few days later," she said. "The uniforms mean we have no bullying because of clothes. They help the students blend in with their peers."
Stevens was a second-grade teacher at Arise before she moved to Chicago to go to graduate school and become a social worker. She never planned to move back to the city.
"But you can't get away from New Orleans, and whenever I came back to visit, Arise was always one of my first stops," she said. "We have a great sense of community here, and I've been able to see a lot of the kids grow up."
For Paula Brandon, the mother of two sons and a daughter who attend Esperanza Charter School on South Carrollton Avenue, Buckel's drive is a godsend, though she never expected to be on the receiving end of it.
"I donated so many uniforms over the years to help other families, thinking 'One day that could be me,' but I never really thought it would be," she said.
Then this past year she had to move her children from the house they were renting because the owner wanted to sell it. Her new home in Gentilly is more expensive, and she isn't getting as many hours of work at City Park as she needs right now.
"I do weddings, and things are slow because it's hurricane season," she said. "I clean houses, too, but school starts so early this year, and I just don't have the money for uniforms."
Her daughter is in kindergarten, and her boys are 9 and 13, and quickly outgrow their clothes.
"They're good children. They're awesome kids," she said, " I really wanted them to have nice uniforms when school opened."
When she went online, she found Buckel's program, and she called him to see how she could qualify for it.
"I got a phone call back, and he told me how to get the help I need," she said. "He was just so nice. He understands that everybody goes through rough times."
Buckel -- who is director of sales and marketing for Ship Island -- has never forgotten the roots of his program. He still matches up families in jeopardy with those who are able to help. This July, when he sent out letters to donors, he reminded us that he also needs gently-used household items, furniture, toys, books -- things people starting over might need.
"I'm working with with five or six homeless families right now," he said.
He recently delivered items to a family of six in eastern New Orleans who had almost nothing in the rugged place where they were staying.
"It was really eye-opening. I felt like I was in a third-world country," he said. "The woman told me, 'I'm just glad I've got a place to live.' It's one step at a time when you're in those situations."
Since he sent out the letters, Buckel has been hearing from people who have items they'd like to donate, but no way to deliver them. So he's looking for a volunteer or two.
"I'm getting offers of a lot of good stuff, but I need someone with a pickup -- maybe a retired person who knows the city, who'd like to give me a little help," he said.
That's all Buckel has asked of us from the beginning: A little help.
He started the Adopt-A-Family Program nearly a quarter of a century ago, and it's still going strong. He's learned that all of us, working together, make a good team.
Checks should be made out to Adopt-A-Family and sent to Adopt-A-Family Uniform Drive, P.O. Box 457, Long Beach, MS 39560.
Find out more about donating household items to the Adopt-A-Family program at www.la-adoptafamily.com. If you have a pickup and the time and desire to help struggling families, contact Buckel at 228.343.2245 to learn more about delivering donated items in the New Orleans area.
I know that every dollar raised goes to buy school uniforms, and I love getting thank you notes from the kids. Usually, the notes are from elementary school students, and they're illustrated with rainbows and crooked houses and smiling children wearing new uniforms. But last year, I got a note from a junior high student that took up a whole page.
She said her house had burned down and that she did not know where she would end up or how her parents would find the money to buy her and her brothers new uniforms and other clothes. She explained how worried she was about her future.
"Then about a week before school I found out that we had uniforms," she wrote. "I was so happy I was jumping out of my skin. That means that we are one step closer to getting our new home and getting everyone situated. You have made a really big step in our lives, and I can't thank you enough."
Her words reminded me of the whole purpose of the program, and why Buckel began it back in the '90s.
In 1992, touched by the poverty of many New Orleans families, he dreamed up his nonprofit Adopt-A-Family program, a way for groups with something to give to help families living on the edge. He asked schools, civic groups and church groups to collect household goods for people who'd lost their belongings in a fire or were moving out of a shelter into an apartment. It helped families dealing with a crisis.
His Adopt-A-Family Uniform Drive grew out of his program. When he was getting Adopt-A-Family started, New Orleans public schools were adding uniforms, and parents would tell him uniforms for their kids were what they needed most.
He figured out a plan that has been outfitting the city's neediest children for more than two decades. It works like this:
People send contributions in any amount, and school social workers identify students and use $50 vouchers to buy two complete uniforms for them. Everyone who supports the program gets a thank-you note and a receipt for the uniform purchase.
Buckel, who moved to Long Beach, Miss., years ago, works with school social workers to make sure uniforms go to the students most in need, and two local businesses help with the paperwork and costs of running the drive.
Staff members at Pedelahore & Company, a New Orleans accounting firm, copy and mail the receipts and send out the thank-you notes, and the company also donates the postage.
Cynthia Cabibi Bird writes the checks and does the bookkeeping, and her father's law firm, Cabibi and Cabibi in Metairie, does an audit every year to make sure all the money goes towards uniforms.
"All of us, working together, make a good team," Buckel said, when I talked to him a few days ago. "Every year, when the checks start coming in, I feel a certain responsibility and obligation to make sure we're doing it right."
Last year, one of the most successful since Hurricane Katrina, the drive outfitted 970 students across the New Orleans area. This year, the needs are as great as ever, and schools are already opening.
At Arise Academy on St. Claude Avenue, which opened this past week, school social worker Kathleen Stevens sent Buckel a request to cover 51 of her students.
"I had more requests than I usually have," she said, when I talked to her on Wednesday. "I am surrounded by uniforms in my office."
She was grateful that Buckel was able to get them to her so quickly.
"I sent him an email, and he approved my request in a day, and I had the uniforms a few days later," she said. "The uniforms mean we have no bullying because of clothes. They help the students blend in with their peers."
Stevens was a second-grade teacher at Arise before she moved to Chicago to go to graduate school and become a social worker. She never planned to move back to the city.
"But you can't get away from New Orleans, and whenever I came back to visit, Arise was always one of my first stops," she said. "We have a great sense of community here, and I've been able to see a lot of the kids grow up."
For Paula Brandon, the mother of two sons and a daughter who attend Esperanza Charter School on South Carrollton Avenue, Buckel's drive is a godsend, though she never expected to be on the receiving end of it.
"I donated so many uniforms over the years to help other families, thinking 'One day that could be me,' but I never really thought it would be," she said.
Then this past year she had to move her children from the house they were renting because the owner wanted to sell it. Her new home in Gentilly is more expensive, and she isn't getting as many hours of work at City Park as she needs right now.
"I do weddings, and things are slow because it's hurricane season," she said. "I clean houses, too, but school starts so early this year, and I just don't have the money for uniforms."
Her daughter is in kindergarten, and her boys are 9 and 13, and quickly outgrow their clothes.
"They're good children. They're awesome kids," she said, " I really wanted them to have nice uniforms when school opened."
When she went online, she found Buckel's program, and she called him to see how she could qualify for it.
"I got a phone call back, and he told me how to get the help I need," she said. "He was just so nice. He understands that everybody goes through rough times."
Buckel -- who is director of sales and marketing for Ship Island -- has never forgotten the roots of his program. He still matches up families in jeopardy with those who are able to help. This July, when he sent out letters to donors, he reminded us that he also needs gently-used household items, furniture, toys, books -- things people starting over might need.
"I'm working with with five or six homeless families right now," he said.
He recently delivered items to a family of six in eastern New Orleans who had almost nothing in the rugged place where they were staying.
"It was really eye-opening. I felt like I was in a third-world country," he said. "The woman told me, 'I'm just glad I've got a place to live.' It's one step at a time when you're in those situations."
Since he sent out the letters, Buckel has been hearing from people who have items they'd like to donate, but no way to deliver them. So he's looking for a volunteer or two.
"I'm getting offers of a lot of good stuff, but I need someone with a pickup -- maybe a retired person who knows the city, who'd like to give me a little help," he said.
That's all Buckel has asked of us from the beginning: A little help.
He started the Adopt-A-Family Program nearly a quarter of a century ago, and it's still going strong. He's learned that all of us, working together, make a good team.
Checks should be made out to Adopt-A-Family and sent to Adopt-A-Family Uniform Drive, P.O. Box 457, Long Beach, MS 39560.
Find out more about donating household items to the Adopt-A-Family program at www.la-adoptafamily.com. If you have a pickup and the time and desire to help struggling families, contact Buckel at 228.343.2245 to learn more about delivering donated items in the New Orleans area.
Resource: http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2016/08/adopt-a-family_uniform_drive_h.html
