DENVER — For five years, Paula Woodman has dedicated her free time to making certain kids get the clothes they want and need every school year.
Every child who shops at Clothes to Kids gets five outfits, a pair of shoes, a coat and the undergarments they need free of charge.
“They’re shopping like kids in the mall, and then they get to go to school and just be like every other kid,” Woodman said with a smile.
The cause is one close to Woodman's heart. She said when her mom was growing up, she often got made fun of because of the clothes she wore to school.
“My mother went to school, wearing dresses out of the rag pickers bin that girls at school recognized their old dresses, and would make fun of her,” she said. “If you are a child that cannot go to school because you have to share your clothes with your siblings and your parents told you you can't go this day because your sibling needs the clothes that day to go to school, you're missing out on an education.”
“When she talks about her mom, and she talks about her mother's experiences, I think that that's really what resonates with others,” added Clothes to Kids Denver executive director, Valeria Lunka.
Lunka said Woodman is invaluable when it comes to doing things like procuring sponsors and auction items for the upcoming Blue Jean Bash.
“It's just such an amazing gift that she has that she that we're lucky enough to be the recipient of,” Lunka said.
For Woodman, it’s all about making certain kids have access to what her own mother didn’t.
“There's enough difficulty in kids trying to fit in and find who they are," she said. "And clothing or lack of clothing shouldn't be one of those things.”
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