I dropped in on the coffee shop on McKinley Hill that Miguel Flores and Chris Woods are putting together. They’re still a few weeks from opening but recently had an open house that they believed was really successful.

Hear Miguel give an update of the shop and see some photos from the place below:

The colorful stacks of sweatshirts, jeans, shoeboxes and shirts were all but gone by 10 a.m., but Molly Click and Cherylann McMahan were still searching.

There was one student who was going on vacation with his grandfather and needed warmer clothes, said Click, the principal of Clarkmoor Elementary School in Fort Lewis. Another student’s family is struggling financially with large medical bills, and they picked out something for him, too.

“A lot of our families have or have had at least one parent deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan,” she said. “So there are a lot of single parents, and with Christmas and the holidays coming up, they need the extra help.”

For the 20th consecutive year, about $20,000 worth of clothing from an anonymous donor has been distributed to Clover Park School District administrators and counselors, who will give it to students in need. The donor purchases the clothing from department stores in the Lakewood and Tacoma area and has it delivered to the district’s Student Services Center.

Doors opened at 8 a.m. A half-hour later, much of it was “wiped out,” said Kim Prentice, the district’s director of community relations.

Clarkmoor, one of five elementary schools on post, has an enrollment of 300. That makes it easy to keep in communication with the students’ families and figure out who is in need and what they require said McMahan, the school’s health paraeducator.

“They get so excited,” she said. “They feel no shame in it or anything. They’re just happy to get something new and something nice. They just really enjoy it.”

There’s a clear need in the community for the donation, said Angelina Nockai of the district’s Native American Education Program. She said about 64 percent of schoolchildren are enrolled in free- or reduced-lunch programs.

“When the break is over, the kids come to school in their new clothes,” she said. “You know that’s important to them. Here’s an item someone donated to someone in their district, and they’ll wear them the day or two after they get back from Christmas break.”

And it’s important to remember these aren’t secondhand clothes, Click said. That’s something many children notice.

“To have brand-new clothes to give the kids,” she said, “well, that’s just awesome.”

First stop this morning is the Clover Park School District for this:

This year marks the 20th year an anonymous donor in Clover Park School District has donated between $20,000 - $25,000 worth of clothing to needy students in the district. On Thursday and Friday, Dec. 13 and 14, school counselors from across the district will "shop" for students from their school who need new clothes the most. The clothing is sorted by size and color. Counselors come to the Student Services Center, pick out the clothes and take them back to schools to give to the students.

After that, I'm heading to Tacoma's Eastside to catch up with the folks who are opening a coffee shop on McKinley Hill. They're a few weeks away from opening, and the interior is all but done.