Dothan business to donate uniforms, money
A Dothan business owner hopes to do well by doing good.
Patrick Walding, owner of Dothan Uniforms, will donate a portion of his sales on May 1 to purchase uniforms for the Dothan City Schools Clothes Closet.
The Clothes Closet will hold spare uniforms for younger students who have accidents and other students who, because of financial hardships, can’t afford uniforms.
The Dothan City Schools recently adopted a uniforms policy that will go into effect at the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year.
A concern raised during the adoption debate was what would be done for students whose families could not afford the uniforms. The Clothes Closet apparently will answer these concerns.
Walding recently started his business. He said the city school board’s adoption of a uniforms policy created a business opportunity for him.
In addition to the May 1 sale, during which 15 percent of the day’s sales will be donated, Walding is also sponsoring a coloring contest which will award a uniform and $25 to the winning student and a uniform to the runner-up.
Coloring sheets were given out to elementary students at their schools, and more can be obtained by stopping by Walding’s business on Selma Street.
Teresa Wall, a Dothan City Schools resource specialist heading up the Clothes Closet, said she hopes other business owners will step up and stage similar events.
“Let’s keep passing on the good,” she said.
Reader Reactions
You know when they start sending the students door to door to sell items to buy school supplies if I were a parent I would say NO. Then the teachers as they have to shovel more out of there pocket just to teach a child I would tell the school board it is your responsibilty to supply me with what you tell me I must have to teach. It is time we stand up to the government in these hard times and say enough is enough. I have a nemis when it comes to school funding I hope he would read this and hopefully agree.
—“Vulgar Hypocrisy”—
Why are the teachers and staff not required to wear the “government mandated school uniforms” just like the students are? Everybody is laughing at the socialist Dothan city school system. Dothan city school system has a major “pedophile” problem. Yet they choose to tell parents how to dress their children, and exempt themselves. Who is supposed to be setting the example here anyway?
This is a school system where parents can’t even afford to buy school supplies for their children. We have the highest unemployment rate in 28 years. The state education budget eliminates all funding for classroom supplies next year. That’s chalk, paper and instructional materials. There have already been textbook shortages. Our state is broke. Meanwhile, parents should get prepared for the endless parade of fund-raisers, as school officials turn their students into peddlers, and pimps, to generate the revenue the moral busy bodies on the school board want.
What are they going to do if a parent refuses to dress their child in the “government mandated school uniforms?“ Is a state official going to come down and forcibly dress the child. You can’t mandate a policy without using some kind of force or corrosion to enforce it.
How does compelling students to wear uniforms help them learn to make good choices? Isn’t a better way to let them wear what they want and suffer or enjoy the consequences of their choices? When clothing is more important than the job—be it learning biology and learning math or repairing a car and taking care of patients—we diminish the importance of the real job at hand: learning as a student or doing our job well.
Shall food be banned in schools because some students engage in food fights? How about pens and pencils because some students use them to jab at other students? And what about computers? Some teachers use them to access pornography. Shall we toss out the computers?
-Cicero
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