Pink is Shelly Smith’s favorite color.
It’s also the color of the new scarf, T-shirt and New Balance sneakers she pulled out of a brown paper bag more than half her height.
“I like them,” said 7-year-old Shelly. “This’ll be an outfit.”
Shelly was one of about 75 Central Elementary School students to receive her share of nearly $8,000 in clothes from the Assistance League Triangle Area’s Operation School Bell project Tuesday afternoon.
Volunteers from the league and Shoe Carnival were on hand to distribute the bags — filled with items ranging from underwear to sweatshirts — to low-income students.
“We like to see the kids smile,” said Shelley Stirling, league chairwoman of the project. “There is a huge need.”
This is the second year the league has worked with Central, which is the only school in the county to benefit from the nationally organized program so far, Stirling said.
“We talked to the superintendent and said, ‘Do you have a school out there that you think might benefit from our program?’
“He talked with some of the principals, and he said, ‘We think Central would be a great place to start,’ and so that’s why we’re here.”