Clothing Needy Schoolchildren Suits Her Well

Charlotte Ovando once had visions of becoming a top-notch tennis player.

“I took some lessons and thought, wow, this is easy,” Ovando said. “I thought I was going to be good and wasn’t. I went back to charity work.”

That’s when she found her niche in life.

Ovando is chairwoman of Operation School Bell, a Fullerton Assistance League project that provides clothes to needy elementary school students.

The children, selected by principals of the 14 elementary schools in the Fullerton Unified School District, get to choose their own clothes.

In fact, parents aren’t allowed into the room while the children make their selections.

“The children know exactly what they want,” said Ovando, who added that denim skirts and jeans are hot items.

“We are a little surprised they are so choosy but happy to see that. It’s great to see they want pretty things and things that go together.”

Many of the needy children have been wearing hand-me-downs and older items, Ovando said. All clothes accepted for the project must be useful, clean and in good condition.

Working many hours each week on the project suits Ovando, who taught remedial reading for 12 years.

“I’m not a person who can sit around,” said the former head nurse at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. She is married to surgeon Paul Ovando. They have two daughters and four grandchildren.

Nicolas Junior High Principal Mary Dalessi said Ovando is “a woman who has a very clear idea of what she wants to accomplish. She is very focused and definitely gets a feeling of satisfaction helping people who need help.”

For the most part, Ovando said, she has lived a comfortable life.

“But I look around and realize (poverty) could have happened to me or my children,” she said. “Life isn’t easy. I’m so grateful to be able to do this.”

She likes to talk about one child who was particularly difficult to fit.

“We couldn’t find clothes for this special child. We had to go to a store and buy it and then take it to a tailor to fit it to him,” she said. “To see the kid’s face light up after he tried the clothes on was worth the whole project.”

She points out that in the past few years “the need to help children has grown so much. Times are not as good as they used to be.”

She said the Assistance League decided last year to take part in the nationwide Operation School Bell program, which began in Bakersfield in 1958.

The Fullerton program helped clothe 133 children in its first year. Next year, its goal is to help 400 students. Each receives about $75 worth of clothes.

In addition to working with the school project, Ovando also works at the league’s thrift shop in Fullerton.

“Once in a while I buy things there for myself.”