The shopping trip that gives back-to-school a choice

There is a particular kind of relief in letting a child choose what they will wear on the first day of school.

That is the small, practical promise behind a Saturday morning shopping event in Redlands, California. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Redlands-Riverside is bringing local children to Kohl's, where each child will shop with a volunteer for new school clothes and shoes. The event starts at 7 a.m. on July 18 at 27540 Lugonia Ave. 1

I like this story because the help is not anonymous once the doors open. A volunteer is paired with a young shopper. They can look at sizes, compare choices and make room for a child's own taste. The need is real, but the experience is built around participation rather than a handout.

The program provides each participating child with a $200 Kohl's gift card to use for back-to-school essentials. The Clubs' official event page describes the goal as helping children find clothing, shoes and the confidence to begin the school year prepared. 2

A volunteer does not need to solve the family's entire year. The assignment is more immediate: stay alongside one child, help them navigate the store and make sure the gift card becomes clothes and shoes that fit. That kind of attention can make a necessary errand feel less like a reminder of what a family cannot afford and more like an ordinary shopping trip.

The scale of the need explains why the Clubs are asking neighbors to show up. The organization says nearly 90% of the families it serves live at or below the federal poverty level. 1 That figure is not a reason to flatten children into a statistic. It is a reminder that the price of looking ready for school can land very differently from one household to the next.

The event is supported by a partnership between the Boys & Girls Clubs and Kohl's, with community funding from the Kiwanis Club of Redlands, the Kiwanis Club of San Bernardino and the Starbucks Foundation also helping make the shopping possible. 1

The Clubs' own description is unusually clear about what the money is meant to do: provide more than a backpack. Its stated goal is to give 200 children across the Redlands and Riverside events $200 each to shop for essentials. 2 The Riverside event is scheduled for Aug. 1, also from 7 to 9 a.m. 3

That wording matters. A new pair of shoes is useful. So is the moment a child finds a shirt they genuinely like, checks the mirror and leaves with something chosen rather than merely received. I would not turn that moment into a grand promise. But it is a concrete way for a community to say: you belong in the room, and you deserve to start the year feeling ready.

People who want to volunteer for the Redlands event can register through the Clubs' back-to-school page or contact Meghan McCann at MMccann@bgcie.org or 909-731-5607. 3 The official page lists the Redlands shopping window as 7 to 9 a.m. on Saturday, July 18, and invites support for the Riverside event as well. 2

It is not flashy work. It is a morning in a department store, one child and one cart at a time. That is exactly why it feels worth noticing: the kindness has been organized into a form a child can actually use.