Roughly one in ten McKinney residents are living below the poverty line. It’s a situation that Kohl’s of McKinney and Christ Fellowship Church are hoping to alleviate.

Clothe a Child is an annual event in which needy families identified by the counselors of McKinney ISD elementary and middle school receive a $100 stipend to purchase new fall clothes on an early Saturday morning at Kohl’s of McKinney, which also provides a 20 percent discount on all merchandise to the families.

Last year’s Clothe a Child event provided new clothing to more than 1,164 McKinney children and raised more than $100,000 for the cause.

“Funding for the $100 new clothing stipend is obtained through donations from area churches, businesses, school organizations, Scout troops, and individual gifts,” Clothe a Child Area Director John Taylor said. 

The program has also been duplicated in other areas.

According to the Frisco Clothe a Child website: “In 2012, more than 2,500 Frisco, Little Elm, and Prosper ISD elementary and middle school children received $100 of new clothing through the Clothe a Child program due to the generosity of our communities.”

The program works closely with local school districts to identify those children in the greatest need of new clothing.

“School counselors identify children through interaction with the families and the free-and-reduced lunch program,” Lu Mackey, the Clothe a Child coordinator of Christ Fellowship said. “The counselor provides each qualified child with an application to be completed by parents or guardians, which is returned to the school and turned into the Clothe a Child program for review.”

This year’s event take places at 4:30 a.m. on Saturday, September 29 at the Kohl’s location at 3001 S. Central Expressway in McKinney. Volunteers 16 and over are needed to assist families while they shop with bilingual volunteers also needed.

“All communities have children in need of new clothes,” Mackey said. “Unfortunately, not all families have the means to provide the basic clothing items they need for school.”