August is back-to-school time for children everywhere, a time of excitement and anticipation of new friends and new adventures. For many children, going back to school means new clothes, new shoes and brand new bright and fun school supplies. Most children look forward to going to school and making new friends, having slumber parties and finding a niche to fit into. But for the homeless children living here at the mission, back-to-school looks much different.

Our kids know that they may not have any new clothes, but they hope to have clothes that fit. They know that they may not have new shoes, but they hope that their shoes don’t have holes in them. Our kids fear, more than anything, that their classmates will find out that they are homeless. They fear the teasing and mocking of their classmates. Our kids face a side of life that they have no control over and are helpless to escape.

But that’s where you can help them. You see, we can’t give our kids everything that the other kids may have but we do our best to make sure that our kids have everything they need. We currently have a few groups in the community that have offered to help our children with school supplies, but what we don’t have is shoes. For $25 you can provide a new pair of shoes for one of these children. If you will partner with us you will give these children more than warm feet, peace of mind and a chance to fit in, you’ll be giving them dignity, and you can’t put a price tag on that! Would you consider giving to support our children as they face these obstacles that most of us couldn’t even imagine?

(We typically average 65 children at any time at the Mission.)