Local Store Hosts Shopping Spree for Poor Youths

The shopping free-for-all began early Friday as 30 disadvantaged children gathered outside Mervyn’s in Ventura. Each was armed with a $100 gift certificate and about to be set loose in the store to buy a pile of new school clothes.

Within an hour, the children had selected the latest in fashion--new jeans, T-shirts, socks and underwear--from the department store, which promotes ChildSpree every year for schoolchildren from low-income families.

“The looks on their faces are amazing, the smiles and the happiness,” said Doug Caldwell of the Ventura Boys & Girls Club, which organized the event.

“One of the girls told one of our volunteers very shyly that [Friday] was the happiest day of her life,” he said. “That’s really why we do it.”

The benefit will be replayed this morning at Mervyn’s stores in Thousand Oaks and Oxnard, where 30 children in each city will get a shopping spree.

“All of them are from generally working poor families,” said Chris Rutter, director of community resources for Interface, the agency sponsoring the Conejo Valley ChildSpree.

“They would not ever have the money available to buy new back-to-school clothing,” Rutter said.

Besides the clothes given away Friday and today, each child receives new school supplies--paper, pencils, notebooks and more.

The hardest part for organizers was selecting those children who would receive the shopping sprees.

“We just looked into our caseload and decided which families we thought would really be the neediest,” Rutter said. “But it was pretty difficult.”