State official delivers clothing shipment for the needy
Gov. Ed Rendell’s appointed executive director of the Governor’s Cabinet on Children and Families came to Uniontown Monday with a gift of $5,000 worth of new children’s clothes for needy families in Fayette County Executive Director Lance Simmons delivered the clothes, which were the first installment of a $1 million statewide clothing donation to be made over the next two years, to the Rev. Brian Kisner, who will distribute them to families through various agencies and organizations.
Simmons said the clothing is the cabinet’s first step toward improving services for children and families.
“First of all, in Pennsylvania kids come first,” Simmons said. “Second of all, if there are systems that don’t work or flaws, we are going to fix them.”
He said the fixes might mean consolidation or even elimination of certain programs or services.
The 11-member cabinet, which is comprised of high-ranking state officials, will conduct its first meeting this month. It will be charged with forming a commission of stakeholders in children and family service programs.
Appointed by Rendell in a Sept. 18 executive order, the cabinet includes the secretaries of public welfare, education, health, labor and industry, the insurance commissioner, secretary of the budget, directors of the Health Care Reform and Governor’s Policy offices, the governor’s chief of staff and the chairpersons of the Juvenile Court Judges’ Commission and the Commission on Crime and Delinquency.
Simmons said those officials are in key positions that affect children and family services.
He said the cabinet’s long-term goal will be to provide more services when more state money becomes available.
But, the clothes will be put to use immediately, Kisner said.
Bread of Life Tabernacle, 15 Bouquet St., Uniontown; Chestnut Ridge Hope Network, Community Action of Fayette County, Travel for Jesus Ministry in Brownsville and two outreach buses will distribute the clothes to families that need them, he said.
Simmons said the clothes were made by Pennsylvania manufacturers and donated to the New York City-based Kids in Distressed Situations (KIDS).
From there the clothes are delivered to the Uniontown Community Storehouse on East Fayette Street, which Kisner runs. He said any organization that needs clothes can contact him.
“Our concern is that these clothes get to the children that need them,” Kisner said. “This is a real boost for us. It will really enhance the programs we’re doing.”
Simmons said he delivered clothes to service agencies in Waynesburg earlier in the day.
He said new clothes build self-esteem in children and helps them learn in school.