Give them the shirt off your back | Community Spirit

Did you know that Hillsborough County Public Schools is the 8th largest school district in the country? And 60 percent of our children attending these schools live in poverty, as self-proclaimed on their applications for the free lunch program.

OASIS Network of Tampa Bay was created by local moms who wanted to help. Their own children attended affluent schools, but these moms realized many children in our city were not so lucky. So they created OASIS, which is, in effect, a clothing bank for underprivileged students.

Clothing - and other supplies like toiletries, alarm clocks and backpacks - are distributed via the school system's social workers, who have 24 access to take whatever they need, at no charge and with no bureaucracy.

OASIS is almost completely volunteer-run, so you know everyone involved is in it for the right reasons. You, too, can volunteer! You can hold a clothing drive, or help sort clothes, or just donate clothes.

The Interbay Glover YMCA on Himes, south of Euclid, has been kind enough to let OASIS have a receptacle outside its building. Feel free to drop off there; volunteers pick up clothes, take them to the portable, sort, fold and put away...Then social workers come and take what they need.

Want more info? Call me at 287-1914 or Ginger Bean at 975-8179.