Section: Neighbors KE Edition: Final Page: 15

By MARIA CAMACHO Herald Staff Writer

Beth Davis, a teacher at Jack Gordon Elementary, and students from the Country Walk school, will spend a week of summer vacation this month delivering school supplies and book bags to 500 homeless children.

They collected money to buy the supplies to help Project Upstart, a Dade County Public Schools program that has helped homeless children enroll in school and has provided funds for supplies since 1992.

But in the past two years, thousands of federal dollars were cut from the program and that's why Davis offered to help. Jack Gordon Elementary has many students who lost their homes during Hurricane Andrew, so they quickly endorsed the idea.

Throughout the rest of August a dozen shelters will get the donated book bags with pencils, notebook paper, crayons and a self-addressed post card from a Gordon Elementary student.

The exchange will help homeless children feel they have peers, said Juanita de la Cruz, the advocate for homeless children at Dade County Public Schools. ``Hopefully, a friendship can develop between the kids. And it's a good writing exercise.''

De la Cruz knows how it feels not to have a home. She was 9 when her family migrated from Mexico to Texas as farmworkers. That's when she first experienced being homeless.

Project Upstart's goal is to make sure all homeless children in Dade are enrolled in school. Sometimes the staff assists by finding shelters for the family or helping parents find clinics so the children can meet their immunization requirements.

There were 1,800 homeless children in Dade County in 1995, but the number now is much higher because of population growth and welfare and immigration reforms, de la Cruz said. Every day, more needy children come to the shelters, so more supplies are always needed.

``It's a revolving door at the shelters,'' she said. ``Some of them leave and others come every day.''

DELIVERIES THE BOOK BAGS STUFFED WITH

SCHOOL SUPPLIES WILL BE DELIVERED TO CHILDREN AT THESE AREA LOCATIONS: AUG. 22

* Andrew Center, 19200 SW 380th St.

* Cottages of Naranja, 27940 S. Dixie Hwy., Naranja.

* Miami Bridge South, 326 NW Third Ave., Homestead

* Safespace Shelter, South, 48 W. Mowry Dr., Homestead

* Southern Groves, 649 NW Ninth Ave., Homestead

AUG. 25

* A Kid's Place, 227 NE 17th St.

* Esperanza Center, 1398 SW First St.

* Miami Rescue Mission, 2250 NW First Ave.

Homeless clients can get help by calling the City of Miami's hotline at 579-3404 or Dade County's hotline at 638-6368.

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