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It's 6:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning in the fall, and families begin lining up in front of Kohl's department store. Each receives a $100 voucher toward any children's clothing in the store. Each family is paired with a volunteer who assists them in shopping and interacts with them throughout the event.

This annual outreach in three North Texas towns provides underprivileged children with new school clothes, offers suburban families a meaningful way to engage one-on-one with high-risk families, and brings together local churches and corporations.

Clothe A Child was started in 1989 by Dr. Lawrence Kennedy of the North Church in Carrolton, Texas, after remembering people from his childhood helping his family with new clothes. He wanted his church to return the good deed.

After hearing about Clothe A Child in 1999, Matt Schonhoff introduced the idea to the leadership team at his church in McKinney, Texas. The program has grown to include several McKinney churches, plus local and national businesses.

How does it work?

During the summer churches are recruited, volunteers are gathered, and local businesses—such as Starbucks, Krispy Kreme, and Kohl's—are enlisted.

Applications are distributed, through public school counselors, to high-risk families, and the counselors then select those who will receive invitations to Clothe A Child.

Kohl's transfers clearance merchandise, and even does some special purchasing, to provide ample clothing to the participating store.

On the day of the event, volunteers—including Kohl's employees who help for no pay—arrive at 5:30 a.m. to set up.

In 2002, Schonhoff and others started a separate non-profit organization to oversee Clothe A Child (www.clotheachild.org), which expanded in 2003 to Frisco, Texas, and then into nearby rural churches. The program now clothes more than 1,000 children each year in the three cities, and the group is fielding inquiries from as far away as Connecticut and Utah.

Churches work together in each community, with 10 churches banding together last year in McKinney.

The benefits have gone beyond providing clothes for families in need.

"The first year we did this, we decided at the last minute to take pictures, but didn't have anyone to do it," says Schonhoff, who works as a private investigator. "One of our volunteers spoke up and said, 'My husband is a photographer. He can do that.'"

As it turns out, the woman's husband was not a Christ-follower. He came to the Saturday morning event, took pictures as hundreds of families and volunteers shopped for clothes—and was never the same.

"He told me that was the neatest thing he had ever been a part of," says Schonhoff. "He started coming to church, and he gave his life to Christ not long after that. We know Clothe A Child meets a definite need in the lives of the families we help. But it's so much bigger than that."

"It is one of the most significant events we do," said McKinney Fellowship Bible Church's Rafe Wright, pastor of adult education and outreach ministries. "With the number of people who are involved, it almost looks like an all-church event. It has been tremendous in their spiritual growth and development for our people who possess a lot materially to give to someone in need."

The lasting impact, however, goes beyond the families who are assisted and the volunteers.

"To see several different churches, united, locking arms and doing ministry together has been an incredible picture of unity in the body of Christ," Wright says. "Our churches are becoming known in the community as churches that care and actually put the love of Christ into action. The community is noticing."

Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today International/Leadership Journal.
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