Children's Clothing Center

The Clothing Center has become the largest service project for our chapter. This service provides warm, new clothing to school age children upon recommendation of teachers and counselors. It began in 1970 with Ruth Stiller as chairman and Clara Larko as co-chairmen. Mrs. Theresa Haney of the Akron Public Schools offered some space as a distribution center at the Administration Annex Building. A social service contact, Mrs. Bertie Sass, was assigned as our contact. The Children's Clothing Center opened in November 1970. Clothing deliveries and schedules were coordinated by Jo Witt. Early in the project there were six sub-committees: telephone, clothing collection, mending, ironing, shoes, and delivery. Shoes were provided until 1973 when the MacIntire Project Shoes program began.

Over the years the center has been located in various places. In 1972 it moved to the Miller Building (which is now the Ott Staff Development Center ), in 1980 to Case Elementary School, in 1991 to Litchfield Middle School followed by Perkins Middle School in 1992. In 1999 the Akron Public Schools informed us that the center would have to move due to their need for more classroom space. At that time the center was temporarily moved to Annunciation - St. John School for a year while a search committee looked for a permanent location. In April 2000 a five-year lease was signed for the CCS Center to be located at the Wallhaven Plaza and the center opened there for the 2000 - 2001 school year. The Dedication and Open House at the new center took place on September 24, 2000 with Father Paul Rosing officiating. At this point our Christ Child budget was revised to add a line-item for the operational expenses of running the CCS Center.

During the early years of this project gently-worn clothing items were distributed. Since 1977 almost everything given to the children has been newly-purchased clothing. Over the years over 50,000 school children have been provided new clothing including underwear, socks, shirts, pants or skirts, winter coats, hats, and gloves. In the mid-1990's several elementary schools began to require uniforms and these were then provided for those students. The program is currently handled by Pat Graber (chairman), Rita Burkley and Deanna Vargo (buying), and Alice Gross (deliveries).