Miss Iowa Princess, Izabella, helps out in a BIG way!
Miss Iowa Princess, Izabella Arndt donated her school supplies to a great cause! Check out the story here:
The Free Clinics of Iowa htttp://freeclinicsofiowa.org is the largest network of free medical clinics in the state of Iowa, Free Clinics of Iowa is a donor-supported, not-for-profit organization, consisting of an administrative office and over 30 member free clinics. In rural and urban settings, Free Clinics of Iowa member clinics provide basic healthcare services through volunteer physicians, nurses and other health professionals at no cost to patients.
Their mission statement is:
"We believe every person deserves access to basic healthcare services, Free Clinics of Iowa facilitates the initiation, operation and collaboration of free clinics in the State of Iowa."
They do an school immunization drive every year the first week of August. This is designed to get the kids that can't afford immunizations--their shots--and thereby enabling them to get into school. They also raise the funds to give each child coming through that day for shots, a school backpack and as many school supplies as they need.
A perfect fit for National American Miss Books and School Supplies. Izabella, with the help of her mom, set up a table with all the books and school supplies. After the kids got their shots--some with tears (of course) came to our table to pick our a book -- TO TAKE HOME WITH THEM FOREVER!
Many of the kids that came through, use the library, but owning a book is a new concept. A couple of the kids weren't sure it was real--and we had a hard time telling them, it's true--pick a book and take it with you--it's yours. Some were so excited they had it picked out before the shots were done. Some took a long time to decide--such a big decision.
And the parents LOVED the school supplies--one mother had three kids (K, 1st and 6th) to buy supplies for--we found the school supply list online for them--and Izabella helped them pick out one, by one, the supplies they needed. They got everything they needed from our supplies except one item. I could see the relief on that mom's face when she left that day! It was so heartwarming.
Izabella read to the little ones, she helped them pick out the perfect book, shared her favorite books with them. And in one case, had to work very hard to get one little boy to take a book. Eventually he did--and she was so pleased. Hard for her to understand why some one wouldn't want a book. But a lesson she learned well that day--not all kids have a library of books like her.
In the end--Izabella distributed all the books, and school supplies and had it was a wonderful experience for her.
We invited Abi Goeser to join us--she brought some of her school supplies to add to ours and worked all morning at the event with Izabella.