Dear St. Paul Members,

We are overwhelmed with gratitude to all of you for your generous donation from St. Paul’s Trivia Night proceeds ($3,542.11). How blessed we are to have this wonderful support from our church members! Our worries of providing much needed new underwear for our little clients and others have now disappeared. We provide only three pairs per child/ adult client, but it is our largest expense.

We are so very proud to be able to supply desperately needed clothing to those in need in our community. Because of your compassion, we will be able to purchase storage bags, markers, labels, underwear, and other items for our inventory after our busy school season.

The needs in our community are greater than ever, but because of St. Paul’s generous support and the extraordinary assistance from our community partners, we have been able to meet these needs again this school year. Last year we provided clothing to over 800 clients in Niles Township, and we are quite sure our numbers this year will exceed those from last year.

We absolutely love what we are doing! In the midst of a troubled world, we see so much goodness. We see the best of humanity each week as we fill referral requests for desperately needed clothing from the beautiful donations sent our way. Every item and piece of clothing we are able to give is because of the sheer generosity and compassion from all those who help us. Our community is simply extraordinary in its support.

Just in the past month, we provided clothing that included items for an 84 year old woman who was the victim of a fire, 3 newborn babies, and clothing for a young Skokie mom and her son who are currently living in an undisclosed shelter for victims of domestic violence. Each week we help babies, children, teens, and adults.

We also continue to support Niles Township Respite clients in our building for urgent needs. Just yesterday, we were able to find dress clothing for the cook at the Respite Center. He was formerly homeless and then hired by Niles Township to cook breakfast each day for our clients. He humbly asked for clothing so he could attend church this Sunday with his grandmother.

Here are some examples of our support this year:

  • Rotary Club of Skokie Valley- 400 coats from their annual coat drive
  • Lutheran Church Charities- blankets and clothing
  • Family friend- 20 large boxes of new clothing and toys
  • Skokie Farmers’ Market- monthly clothing donations
  • Countless St. Paul-Skokie members- monthly monetary and clothing donations
  • St. Andrews Philoptochos- 1000 pairs of Bomba socks
  • Baird and Warner- corporate matching fund
  • Madison School, Skokie- unclaimed lost and found items
  • District #219 / Niles North & Niles West- end-of-year locker clean-outs
  • Jewel employee – rescues brand new books, clothing and toys from going into a dumpster
  • Estate Sales Agent- hundreds of Beanie Babies
  • Park View School- unclaimed lost and found items
  • Local dentist- boxes of toothpaste
  • Patrick Hanley (Running for State Senate) – 6 boxes of coats and accessories
  • Skokie resident- uses her points at Old Navy to purchase monthly donations of underwear and sweatpants for kids
  • ROYA (a local organization established to help Skokie refugees from Afghanistan) – 10 boxes of coats
  • Girl Scout Troop that meets in our building- 400 toiletries (we shared with our Respite Center)
  • Living Hope Church, Skokie- clothing drive
  • Morton Grove Library- handmade blankets, hats and scarves
  • St. Andrews Park Ridge- new hats, scarves and mittens
  • Skylight Vintage, Evanston- diapers
  • Glencoe Central School (After School Program) -100 Christmas gifts for children
  • An elderly Skokie woman- knits beautiful scarves for us year-round

We are also most grateful for our volunteers from Orchard Village, NTDSE and Calvary Redemption Church who help with sorting and labeling inventory.

We thank you again for supporting us. We are so very proud of our church for deciding 12 years ago to open our doors and create this amazing outreach.  We have grown from a classroom of coats for those in need, to a fullscale operation of providing coats, socks, underwear, hats, scarves, mittens, purses, blankets, toys, books, toiletries, jewelry, shoes, boots, and infant to adult size clothing. We are continually thanked by members of our local schools, townships, police departments, social service agencies, and other community leaders for providing services for those most in need.

God bless you all!

Vicky Schiewe, Joanie McKinney, Jamie Oline, Carol Peterson, Anne Roiniotis, Cheryl Crawford, Linda, Kris Kiesel and Jill Mueller
March 17, 2026