For any parent who ever had to drag a child into a store to shop for school clothes, Angelo and Sabrina Duran would count as dream kids.
Sunday morning found them eagerly poring over racks of shirts, pants and shoes at Clothes to Kids of Denver, a recently launched nonprofit that puts clothes on the backs of disadvantaged youth.
Angelo is a fresh-faced 15-year-old who attends Kennedy High School. He and two of his sisters live with their grandmother, Margaret Rodriguez, who has kinship foster-care custody of them. Rodriguez raised three of Angelo’s older siblings, too.
That’s how it is for some families. But on a lovely autumn afternoon, Angelo was picking out clothes and thoroughly enjoying the day — certainly far more than Denver Broncos fans watching their team tank to the Kansas City Chiefs.
“I really like the colored T-shirts and shorts,” he told me. “And they have great ball caps. But it’s coming toward winter, so I also better shop for pants.”
Angelo, a small teen with the first wisp of a boyish mustache, had already scored a pair of Converse sneakers and a black coat.
It was a sweet arrangement: He got to pick out five shirts, four pants, a winter coat, five pairs of underwear and socks, shoes and gear such as a hat, scarf, gloves and the other things that keep you warm on the way to school.
“It’s a pretty big deal,” he said. “A real privilege.”
All this was thanks to a $7,500 grant from the Kentucky-based Sutherland Foundation. It enables Clothes to Kids — with an assist from the Denver Department of Human Services — to give a week’s worth of outfits to 100 children. The store opened Sept. 1, and by Sunday it had outfitted 41 kids. Another 25 were expected by day’s end.
“We want to get word out to other partners, and by 2010 we hope to get 100 kids a week through here,” said Gail Cerny, the organization’s president.
Angelo’s sister Sabrina was combing the donated clothes with a sharp eye toward brand names: Abercrombie & Fitch, Aeropostale, American Eagle.
Sabrina is two weeks shy of her 13th birthday and studies visual arts at the Denver School of the Arts. She had a straw basket draped over her arm. It already bulged with clothes, including a red-and-white striped top and a pair of olive knee-length pants. Tres chic. “This has been really cool,” she said.
The store is in a shopping center at 2890 S. Colorado Blvd., squeezed into an apartment-sized nook across from the Chez Artiste movie theater.
For now, children are referred to the shop by caseworkers at the Denver Department of Human Services. But referrals will also come from Denver Public Schools and places of worship that serve the underprivileged.
Given that 67 percent of Denver students were eligible for free or reduced lunches in 2007, Cerny said, that’s a lot of potential customers.
“The need in Denver County is huge,” she said. “I’m telling you, when we got this grant, I cried. A little bit of money goes a long way in a program like this.”
If you want to learn more about the organization, go to .
When you see a kid like Angelo beaming over a new pair of used shoes, you understand its worth.
William Porter writes Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at wporter@denverpost.com or 303-954-1977.
