Money Pours In to Buy Student Uniforms

Moved by reports that some elementary-school children in Santa Ana are too poor to afford the uniforms the school district will require, donors have stepped forward with offers of thousands of dollars.

Last week, uniform drive organizers were lamenting the slow rate of donations and postponed a fund-raising “prom” or dinner-dance for lack of interest. This week, about $4,000 has been sent to organizers or pledged to the district.

“After people learned the prom was canceled, things turned around, and the response has been incredible,” said Patricia Gomez, organizer of the Santa Ana Unified School District’s uniform drive.

Hyundai Motor America Corp. in Fountain Valley donated $1,000 to the district after employee Bernadette Medrano brought the problem to the auto maker’s attention.

“When Bernadette showed me the article, my first thought was that as a young kid today you have enough to worry about,” said Donna Kane, a spokeswoman for Hyundai Corp., who urged the company to donate to the uniform drive. “I thought they just should not have to worry about uniforms too.”

In addition, the company’s employees are raising money for children attending Pio Pico Elementary School. Employees in the public affairs office challenged workers in other departments to buy uniforms, and donations have already begun.

Santa Ana Hyundai, a dealership, has promised to buy four uniforms for every car sold in September.

Also among those who offered to help was former Orange County Supervisor Gaddi Vasquez, who pledged $1,000 after reading about the uniform problem in The Times.

He said that as the son of migrant farm workers who struggled to make ends meet, he knew what it was like not to be well dressed for school and wanted to spare other children that experience.

“For children to be deprived of the opportunity to be full participants in the educational process because of their attire was a concern to me,” Vasquez said.

When the school board voted last year to require children in classes up to eighth grade to wear blue and white uniforms, it was with the hope that the pressure to be fashionable would lessen for students and clothing expenses would ease for their parents.

But the $25 cost of a uniform is still too much money for some parents, especially in large families, and a new fashion worry has surfaced.

Children who cannot afford a uniform will not be punished if they attend school without one, and the district will try to provide one for them. But it is feared that their clothing may advertise their poverty to classmates.

It was concern that children not be singled out at school that led the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to donate $500 for uniforms.

“The point of having uniforms is so kids can all be on the same playing field and only their school work and their citizenship role will make them stand out,” said Peter Villegas, president-elect of the Hispanic chamber.

Many other donations and pledges have been made since the Times article, several anonymously.

“It’s such a noble thing that they’re doing, but I think people recognize the value of having these uniforms,” said Amin David, president of Los Amigos of Orange County. “I think people see the spiritual aspect of helping these precious little kids.”

For more information or to make a donation to the uniform fund, call Patricia Gomez at (714) 558-5720.