Back to School at Lakeshore Beach Apartments

On Thursday, August 18th I sat watching out the window of Northeast Shores in anticipation of the arrival of Valerie McCormack, the Executive Director, of Shoes and Clothes for Kids. Valerie is the Santa Claus of school supplies. For the second year in a row her organization provided over 60 book bags filled with school supplies. On behalf of the children who would soon be receiving the supplies, I thanked Valerie profusely. Valerie commented, “I am just glad that we could help the children be prepared for school”. My car was already pretty full of supplies donated by Northeast Shores but we found room in my little Ford Focus for the book bags. Once my car was all loaded up I made my way to Lakeshore Beach Apartments.

The children started lining up at 3:30 even though we were not supposed to start until 4:00. They had their little faces pressed up against the door in anticipation. Once we opened the door to start handing out the book bags and supplies it did not take long before every child who was there was loaded up and ready for school. There were lots of smiles and happy faces. We even gave some pencils and notebooks to the moms who were returning to school to learn critical job skills.

This is only part of making sure these children excel in school this year. The management of Lakeshore Beach in collaboration with Joann Scott, a local resident has started a mentoring/tutoring program to help the children with their homework.

Let’s hope for a successful school year for all the children of North Collinwood.