All-girls school nets $15,000 donation from JCPenney for uniform closet

When Rose Amezquita was about to begin attending Irma Rangel Young Women's Leadership School as a freshman, she worried about how her single mother would be able to afford the school uniforms. That's when she started to look for a job.

Amezquita, now a senior, recalled how her mother wouldn't let her get a job. She also remembered the teacher who gave her a school blazer as a birthday gift, and another teacher who resewed loose buttons on that blazer, no questions asked. She said her younger sister will begin attending Rangel next year as a sixth-grader, and those worries about affording uniforms returned – until Friday, Dec. 7.

On that day, JCPenney donated $15,000 to stock the school's uniform closet so that girls whose families are unable to afford school uniforms won't go without them.

Misty Tippen, Senior Manager of Community Engagement and Philanthropy for JCPenney, said she was moved by students' recitation of the Rangel creed. She admitted not reading along with them for part of it because she watched the students – who she said not only spoke the creed from memory, but from their hearts.

JCPenney visited seven other Dallas ISD schools on Friday to spread cheer by donating backpacks and gift cards to selected students.