Assistance League of Diablo Valley’s Operation School Bell Partners with Macerich at Meadow Homes Elementary School, Concord

Since 1967, Assistance League® of Diablo Valley’s dedicated member volunteers have been improving lives in our community through the chapter’s hands-on philanthropic programs.  Operation School Bell®, now enjoying its nineteenth year in the Diablo Valley, is a nationally acclaimed program that provides clothing and shoes for elementary schoolchildren.  Last year alone, Operation School Bell volunteers, as well as Corporate Partners employee volunteers, served 4011 children, including those enrolled at Meadow Homes Elementary School, located in the Monument Corridor of Concord.  Representing nineteen cultures, the school community offers its children a safe place where they enjoy the love of learning. 

On October 3, Assistance League of Diablo Valley’s Corporate Partners Committee Chairman Lesley Salo welcomed Senior Marketing Manager and team leader Tracy Dietlein and employee volunteers from Macerich, owners of  Broadway Plaza, Walnut Creek.  Since 2006, “good neighbors” from Macerich have supported the chapter by offering merchandising insights at its primary fundraiser, Assistance League Way Side Inn Thrift Shop in Lafayette, collecting, donating, and transporting denim apparel to the thrift shop; bagging clothes for Operation School Bell at the chapter house site; and, most recently, helping Meadow Homes schoolchildren during this sizing event.  Staff Assistant to Supervisor Karen Mitchoff, District IV, Laura Case was also hand.  (Supervisor Mitchoff serves as one of eight Chapter Advisors to Assistance League of Diablo Valley, as well as the First Five Commission on Children and Families.)   Assistance League of Diablo Valley President Margie Basile updated the Corporate Partners employee volunteers about the chapter’s various programs and sizing procedures before they reported to Operation School Bell Vice Chairman Inventory Liz Haag to confirm their assignments.

Together, Assistance League of Diablo Valley’s Operation School Bell, Macerich, and Supervisor Mitchoff’s office helped schoolchildren make good choices.  In two hours’ time, nine energetic volunteers helped 200 students determine that perfect fit for one jacket, one sweatshirt, two pairs of pants for boys, or skorts for girls, three polo shirts, six pairs of socks, a six-pack of underwear for boys, a five-pack of underwear for girls, and a shoe card from Payless.  The Meadow Homes Elementary School students were then returned to their classrooms, where they continued to build a strong academic foundation, nurture feelings of self-esteem, and foster respect for others.

To learn more about Assistance League of Diablo Valley’s Corporate Partners Program or its eight philanthropic programs and its two auxiliaries, please visit this website: diablovalley.assistanceleague.org.  Members of the Speakers’ Bureau are also available to present our story to various organizations, free of charge. For more information about scheduling a speaker to present to your group, please remain on our website, find the About Us column on the left side of the page, and select Speakers’ Bureau.