The Cleveland Police Foundation proudly announces that the recipient of our Community Partner of the Month for August 2018 is Bridget Pauly.
September 2018 Community Partner – Bridget Pauly
While travelling to several schools last winter, particularly Thomas Jefferson International Newcomer’s Academy, we noticed many of the children did not have proper school shoes to deal with our winter weather. Many children from refugee families were still in sandals and did not have socks. The Cleveland Police Foundation and Cops for Kids held a fundraiser to help buy school shoes for our CMSD students and raised about $3,000.
When seeking out a shoe store that could help us we were fortunate to find our good friend Bridget Pauly from Payless Shoesource at Steelyard Commons. Without hesitation, she jumped at the chance to help us help these children. Bridget and Payless offered us discounted prices and even pitched in to provide each child with a pack of socks, allowing us to buy shoes and socks for 125 children from six schools.
We would show up with 20 students and Bridget would single-handedly get each child taken care of politely and efficiently. Due to the money saved from discounts we were able to take each group of kids to Mitchell’s Homemade Ice Cream for a treat after a trip. One young lady who was displaced from Puerto Rico because of hurricane damage remarked that she had no idea school here would be so much fun with the police!
It is because of this going the extra mile for children in need that the Cleveland Police Foundation names Bridget Pauly its Community Partner of the Month for August 2018.