Leos distribute shoes, socks and coats
Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune
The Madera Leos Club spent the past two weeks at Madera Unified School District elementary schools distributing a number of shoes, socks and coats. The club received a matching grant from the California Lions Foundation for $5,000 to be able to help MUSD students.
The Madera Leos Club, an off-campus club for junior high and high school students sponsored by the Madera Evening Lions, has been giving coats, shoes and socks to children in Madera for more than 15 years.
Now, the Madera Leos has members that received a coat or a pair of shoes from a Leo, and have looked forward to the day they could join.
The club’s primary fundraiser for their New Coat Project and New Shoes and Socks Project is “Madera’s Got Talent,” which raised $5,000 and the California Lions Foundation matched with a $5,000 grant.
With $10,000, they delivered coats, shoes and socks to 19 schools in Madera.
The Leos received several pairs of shoes from the Vans Store in Fresno. The shoes are given to the Linkage Foundation and are then given to the Leo Club for their projects. Many socks have also been donated to the Leo Club.
The mission of the Leo Club is to provide Leos with an opportunity where they can serve their community. With the funds raised, the Leos went shopping and helped organize the items that are being delivered. The Leos personally remove the old shoes and place a clean pair of socks on the child. Each child will receive five pairs of socks. They will also put the new coat on the child and cut the tags off. Many of the children who receive a coat have never had a new coat or a new pair of shoes.
The Leos gave away 1,485 pairs of socks, 297 pairs of shoes and 309 coats to children in need.
The Madera Leo Club would like to thank the sponsors of Madera’s Got Talent Season 7, the Madera Linkage Foundation, the Vans Shoe Store, the Come Up Kickz Shoe Store, the Amanecer Foundation, the Madera Unified School District, the Madera Evening Lions and especially the California Lions Foundation for making this all possible.
If anyone would like to make a donation to the Madera Leo Club projects, email maderaeveninglionsevents@gmail.com.
