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Hurricane Katrina

Clothes free, smiles priceless

A shopping spree at Old Navy is about more than khakis for kids still here after Katrina.

By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published November 10, 2005

	[Times photo: Brian Cassella]
	Larreaion Harris, 4, left, and Avery Algere, 6, both of New Orleans, show off photos that Old Navy employees snapped for children who visited the store Wednesday as part of the shopping spree.

TAMPA - For a few moments in a few hundred lives Tuesday night, salvation came in the form of folded long-sleeved crew neck T-shirts and stacks of regular fit "Super Khakis."

For 8-year-old Madison Peterson from Belle Chasse, La., it was hot pink ballet slippers with sequins. For 10-year-old Jordan Algere from New Orleans' 9th Ward, it was an orange and white hooded sweatshirt with an Old Navy patch on the breast.

But the favorite items at Westshore Plaza's Old Navy this night - an evening for 300 kids displaced by Hurricane Katrina to shop for free - were not made of cotton or corduroy, elastic or fleece. They came without a price tag.

Most popular were the simple, floppy Polaroids spit from a camera each time a mall volunteer gave the prompt. "Say cheese!"

Little hands waved them. Little eyes gazed into them. Grownup fingers slipped them gently into purses and jacket pockets.

Valerie Hunter, 47, of Violet, La., in devastated St. Bernard Parish, couldn't stop staring at the just-snapped photo. Music bopped overhead. Shoppers around her fingered racks of clothes and flitted from one display to another.

Still she stared.

There they were, her and 17-year-old son, Lyle, with big smiles, together in front of the store's ice cream stand display of rolled fleece blankets. Three months and 660 miles from home, in a shopping mall she had to use a map to find.

"She likes pictures too much," Lyle chided as he headed with their volunteer personal shopper toward the big-boy's section on the other side of the store.

"I lost all my pictures," Hunter said without raising her eyes. "Pictures are good."

Lyle started looking for a nice pair of khakis.

Gap Inc., Old Navy's parent company, on Tuesday partnered with Hillsborough County schools to make Tampa the seventh city to invite Katrina kids on a $100 shopping spree. The cost is being borne by Gap Inc. through its charitable foundation.

With two more cities to go, the company hopes to have hosted 15,000 kids and their families in its stores nationwide before the "Field Trip 4 Fun" is over. Between WestShore and University malls, about 300 Hillsborough County transplants participated this week.

At times, the red-shirted personal shopping volunteers seemed like they were trying to push them into taking more. Maybe a belt? Another shirt?

It's been three months, but the families said it's still hard to take donations.

"The most frustrating thing is the first thing we lost was our dignity," said Angel Brewer, 43, also of Violet, La. Her 7-year-old granddaughter, Brianna, skimmed the racks quietly as a volunteer grabbed hanging shirts and held them to the girl's shoulders.

Donors have offered groceries. They've shown up with bags of clothes. They've handed out meals and cleared out guest rooms. "Swallowing that pride and accepting is hard," Brewer said.

Lyle, whose mother calls him Lundi, chose only the basics. A package of undershirts - mom was having to wash the few he had too often. Two pair of boxer shorts. A pair of $20 dress khakis, 34 waist, 32 length. One brown thermal crewneck with stripes. One pair of blue, fleece slippers, size 8-9.

"I try not to take much," Lyle said as he headed to the checkout counter with a blue mesh bag holding his new clothes. "I don't want to seem like I'm taking things for granted."

Behind him, little faces lined up to get their pictures taken again and again.

Rebecca Catalanello can be reached at 813 226-3383 or rcatalanello@sptimes.com

[Last modified November 10, 2005, 01:20:16]