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By Diana L.
Chapman
The teacher at a Wilmington Elementary
School kept the two boys behind at recess. Why, the fourth grade teacher asked,
were they fighting -- a little tip he'd received. The boys shuffled about until
the true confessions flowed out from the smaller student.
The larger boy, he admitted, was bullying
him -- about his shoes. One of his
sneaker's soles gaped open like a shark's mouth.
I had just finished up a volunteer writing
workshop in that class and my head hurt that a kid was hassled over his
sneakers making me think of a friend Jennifer Marquez; She mentioned recently that
she had snagged a big score for the non-profit where she works. It was 150 pairs of shoes. Shoes for needy
kids.
***
Before stumbling into the bullying incident,
I called Jennifer to do a story about her unique job. She collects gifts-in-kind for Shelter Partnership,
a non-profit dedicated to resolving the crises of homelessness that serves
51,000 homeless in Los Angeles County and collaborates with 200 other agencies.
But now I was calling her to see if she had extra
shoes for the Wilmington student. Because of her efforts, Payless Shoes awarded
Shelter Partnerships 150, $20 vouchers to shoe the feet of needy children for a
third year in a row. Half were slotted for San Pedro children; the other half
will be donated near the end of the month through the Union Rescue Mission.
It was
a generous offer Payless does nationwide each year. Despite that it's much smaller than the case
and palette loads that roll into non-profit, the donation is considered just as
precious.
Often homeless children get shoes, but never
have the chance to select them.
"This is a fantastic donation because the
kids from the shelters get to pick them. They get to try them on,"
Jennifer explained. "Otherwise, they get shoes that don't fit or they are
not the right style. The fact the kids are able pick out and try on their own
shoes is really exciting."
When I told Jennifer about the student, I
could hear her heart melt over the phone. Her voice softened and stirred with
compassion.
She could set aside shoe vouchers for the
boy and two siblings, but the parents must call the collaborating agency, the
YWCA Harbor Area , to register. Sometimes, she added, parents won't call. Sometimes,
they are too proud, ashamed, scared or shy.
I passed the information to the teacher and
waited.
 |
| Jennifer Marquez thrilled to collect surplus goods |
***
On
any given day, when Jennifer's phone rings, she might hear on the other end
that a business wants to donate 4,000 diapers. Or maybe there's thousands of
rolls of toilet paper or 50 cases of shampoo or hundreds of cases of soap -- all at the top of the list as necessities for
the homeless. Perhaps a shipment of toys
comes in or stacks of unused clothes.
Jennifer's job is to solicit donations and she frequently arranges the
trucks to pick up the goods and ensure the companies receive good service.
"Every day is different and I'm
motivated to get items that might end up in landfills. I'm frequently having trucks do pick-ups,"
she says. "We'll have anything from brand new apparel, arts and crafts to 2,000
toys coming in from Mattel. We are the number one recipient of Hasbro in the
state of California.
"I try to give them the Cadillac
treatment."
Having worked for homeless-related
non-profits for 20 years doing fundraising and grant writing, it wasn't until
she landed the gifts-in-kind job seven years ago for Shelter Partnership that she
really found her niche.
Simply put, her job is to stuff a 108,000
square foot warehouse in Bell with donated brand new goods needed by the
homeless -- anything new can be collected including underwear and socks.
The largest donation Shelter Partnerships
ever received was 16 semi trucks full of toothbrushes. The oddest: cellulite
cream and disposable spa underwear, she said.
On
occasion, the non-profit will also receive counterfeit items after U.S. Customs
seized them from ships in the Port of Los Angeles.
While some businesses want the confiscated articles
destroyed, others have turned them over to the agency. That's how hundreds of little
girls were able to receive counterfeit Dora backpacks and some homeless
received new Mercedes polo shirts.
To
obtain those donations, the agency agreed to have volunteers and employees cut
out every label, Jennifer explained. Because the non-profit guarantees that the
collected goods will not be sold, pickups of surplus donations have attracted
the likes of Disney, Hasbro and Mattel Inc.
Since she was young, Jennifer has been
concerned about other's plights. First, the Girl Scouts made her aware of them.
She learned more later when she volunteered to work with adults in the later
stages of HIV and critically ill children.
She has a powerful drive to helping those in
poverty -- especially kids -- who suffer from things like parents using
newspapers as diapers.
"What happens is when people lose their
jobs or are facing poverty, they don't
have money for essentials, said the San Pedro mother of two boys, 7 and 9.
"They are choosing between food or shoes for their children. The kids in
the shelters, they want to blend in. Children don't choose the situation.
"They
don't chose their parents. They don't want to be the kids with the holes in
their shoes. They are innocent victims of poverty."
Shelter Partnership's doors are open to businesses
and manufacturers that want to donate surplus
instead of dumping them in a landfill. Then the non-profit disseminates them
to shelter agencies that need the supplies.
Top of the list of the non-profits needs -- and all must be new -- are hygienic products: diapers, soaps,
toothpaste, shampoos, toilet paper, toothbrushes, hair brushes, and combs. In
addition, new clothes, toys, bedding, crayons, pencils, papers, notebooks, and
other products can be easily donated. Jennifer says she tends to work with
shipments coming in by the caseload and pallet.
While
most items are new, there are exceptions such as when the television show
Scrubs was scrubbed. The program offered all the show's apparel, some of which
had never been worn and others that had seen little use.
She
took all of it. The scrubs then worked their way into homeless shelters as
clothes as will the Payless shoes
 |
| Jasmine's old sneakers. |
***
In early January, Jennifer and the
collaborating YWCA of the Harbor Area, helped kids try on brand new shoes at a
San Pedro Payless along with their parents and siblings. It was chaotic, with
shoe boxes littering the floors, and mothers hugging the non-profit employees
with sheer gratitude.
Brian, 7, of San Pedro was delighted to get
new footwear.
"They are light and easy to walk in and
good because it was getting colder," Brian said.
When
the parents of Jasmine, 2, took her new shoes off and put her old shoes on, the
toddler cried profusely and didn't stop until her new shoes went back on.
The mother of Jordan, 8, and Joceyln, 3, who
came from Hawthorne but are YWCA clients, was thrilled, "because there are
no programs like this in our area."
"Many of the children we selected for the free shoes were not chosen for our
"Many of the children we selected for the free shoes were not chosen for our
holiday adopt a family program," explained Rosa Martin, Administrative Coordinator,
YWCA of the Harbor Area. "These families have needs all year not just at the holidays
and are trying hard to support their families."
For the rest of us, who may not be touched by homelessness, Jennifer adds, "there is
hidden poverty everywhere."
At her children's school, there were two children that were homeless last year,
one was living out of a car. Both are now in better situations. This year, she adopted
an elderly woman for Christmas who asked for small gifts, a blanket, a sweater and
a scarf.
"You just don't know who's walking down
the street who's not going to eat dinner tonight," she said.
Or who might have to go shoeless.
At the end of January, another 75 children from Los Angeles, in collaboration with the
Union Rescue Mission, will receive their shoes.
But as Jennifer warned me, I am sad to say the Wilmington boy's parents never called.
For more information about Shelter
Partnership, visit www.shelterpartnership.org Diana can be reached at
hartchap@cox.net
