Giving
Corporate
Partnership
Prospectus
Many Minds, One Heart
Assistance League of Long Beach
Operation School Bell®
Corporate Partnership
Prospectus
There are children in the Long Beach community whose families cannot afford school uniforms, children who miss class because they cannot dress appropriately. For these children, Operation School Bell is the only community program providing the “safety-net” of new, free school uniforms.
Operation School Bell is a philanthropic program of Assistance League of Long Beach, dedicated to the vision that no child should fail to attend or perform in school for lack of adequate clothing. Operation School Bell Corporate Partners share this vision for the children and schools of Long Beach and assist in underwriting the purchase costs of school uniforms for the neediest students.
Operation School Bell has been clothing children in Long Beach schools since 1974. With the introduction of mandatory school uniforms in 1992 the program has taken on new significance and new urgency. School uniforms improve the learning environment and reduce distractions in the classroom. Schools that mandate uniforms have fewer absences, fewer suspensions and better test scores. School uniforms improve discipline and reduce gang influences on campuses.
But the families of many Long Beach students cannot afford uniforms. As many as fifty percent of the 87,000 students in the Long Beach Unified School District live in households with incomes at or below the poverty level. Nearly seventy percent of the district’s students qualify for subsidized school lunches.
Operation
School Bell exists to serve these students. As the number
of students in need increases, the services must expand to keep
pace. In partnership with the Long Beach Unified School
District, Operation School Bell is making plans to nearly triple
the number of children clothed each school year, to provide
complete uniforms to 10,000 students annually.
For nearly 35 years, Assistance League of Long Beach has supported Operation School Bell through the volunteer action and fundraising of its members. To meet the schools' challenging new goals, Assistance League invites the business community to join as Operation School Bell Corporate Partners, assisting in underwriting the purchase costs of school uniforms for the neediest students in the Long Beach Unified School District.
Our first auxiliary, Rick Rackers, started this program. For many years, Rick Rackers provided new school clothes to elementary children who were the most in need. Since the 1970s, Rick Rackers and chapter members have clothed thousands of children from grades K-12 in the Long Beach Unified School District. To meet the schools’ challenging new goals, Assistance League invites the business community to join as Operation School Bell Corporate Partners, assisting in underwriting the purchase costs of school uniforms for the neediest students in the Long Beach Unified School District.
Funding from Operation School Bell Corporate Partners is exclusively dedicated to purchasing uniforms to clothe children: Senior Partners ($10,000) provide school uniforms for 143 students each school year, Partners ($5,000) clothe 71 students per year, Associates ($2,500) provide uniforms for 36 students, Friends ($1,000) provide uniforms for 14 students, and Supporters ($500) clothe 7 students per year.
Operation School Bell Corporate Partners join with Assistance League of Long Beach and the Long Beach Unified School District to fulfill the vision that each child must arrive at the classroom door ready to learn and no child should fail to attend or perform in school for lack of adequate clothing.
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