SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – This weekend, 325 students will shop for free school clothing as a part of Operation School Bell, a program designed to help disadvantaged students feel confident and prevent low self-esteem from hindering school attendance, Operation School Bell Co-Chair Lisa Brinkley said.
One year, Brinkley said, a student came to the register with two pairs of shoes in his cart. When the volunteer asked him why he chose two pairs, he held his foot up. He was wearing his aunt’s ballet slippers.
He replied: “‘I’ll never have to wear these again.'”
Operation School Bell is the signature event of the Assistance League Sierra Foothills. The league plans it to coincide with the start of the school year and allow students to get ahead of the cold winter weather by buying warm clothes.
Brinkley said historically high gas prices have been pushing the budgets of families in South Lake Tahoe even more than usual and “inflation is just eating into every single dime that they have.”
“People really put the priority of having a roof over their heads and food on the table, and so the one thing that goes first tends to be clothes,” she said.
But this can have a disastrous effect on the self-esteem and mental health of students, Brinkley said. That, in turn, affects school attendance.
Counselors at the El Dorado County Office of Education identify students who are in-need from transitional kindergarten until 12th grade. Brinkley said the vouchers are split fairly evenly between grade levels, with only a few TKers because it’s their first year serving that population.
The counselors are always asking to add more kids to the list, Brinkley said, adding “We wish we could serve more kids.”
Assistance League Sierra Foothills then contacts their families and gives them vouchers of age-appropriate amounts to spend at Target on Lake Tahoe Blvd. Elementary schoolers typically get $100, middle schoolers get $120 and high schoolers get roughly $140.
Students will shop between 4 to 8 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday. Assistance League Sierra Foothills works with the Kiwanis who are supplying coats and winter socks to all attendees.
Brinkley said since Assistance League Sierra Foothills is a volunteer-only organization, almost every dollar donated goes directly into the program. This year, the league raised about $150,000 to distribute to students in the county through grants, holiday home walk-throughs and garden walk-throughs.
Since the Assistance League Sierra Foothills brought Operation School Bell to the area in 2008, more than 11,000 students have participated across El Dorado County, according to its website. In 2025, Operation School Bell served 1,126 students from 60 schools in the county. Plus, more than 50 volunteers exceeded 700 hours of service to make the event happen last year, the website said.
LTUSD Associate Superintendent Dr. Alan Reader and several local principals will welcome students at the event.
