The Cato Fashions store in Nicholasville made a sizable donation to a local nonprofit last week.

The women’s clothing and fashion accessories store, located at 965 S. Main St., donated numerous boxes of clearance sale leftovers to the local charity, All God’s Children on Friday.

Susan Cameron, the store’s manager, said that the decision for the donation was made by the company’s Chairman and President, John P. D. Cato.

“Mr. Cato is very big on donations and giving back to the community,” Cameron said.

Merchandise donations to nonprofit organizations are common across the store’s over 1,300 different locations across the country.

Cameron explained that All God’s Children came up in a conversation between herself and a customer two months prior, and she liked the premise of the local program.

She said she saw immediately how her store could be of service and chose them for the Nicholasville store’s donation.

“The clothes that we have fit their needs tremendously,” she said.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based retailer specializes in value-priced clothing and accessories for ladies. This made All God’s Children the perfect candidate for a donation.

All God’s Children has been active in Nicholasville for eighteen years. It is a faith-based residential group home for girls under the age of 18 who are pregnant, have children or both. The services offered include a parenting program, an independent living program and a foster care program that places children 18 years of age and under in certified homes.

“They do not have to be in Nicholasville,” Pam Smith, founder and manager of All God’s Children said. “We have homes all over central Kentucky.” 

Smith said that they also have an accredited two-star on-site daycare for the young mothers who are currently students as well as the foster parents. The daycare currently has a waiting list. 

Smith said that All God’s Children had received numerous donations of goods over the years from the Cato Fashions store in Nicholasville.

“They give us a call and we come pick it up,” she explained. “We are about a mile from here.” The continued generosity of the store has been greatly appreciated, as she said many of the young ladies who seek help from the charity show up with very little in the way of personal items such as quality clothing. 

“It helps us tremendously to be able to give things to these girls that they wouldn’t ordinarily get to have until we get to go shopping,” Smith said. 

They have brought young ladies in their program to the store to pick out clothing items to wear to special events such as graduation or prom. The group even hosts its own variation of prom—the Mom Prom—which is open to all women and will be held at R.J. Corman’s hangar on April 28. This year’s event will be the fifth, and nearly 200 women annually attend the dinner and dance.

All God’s Children tries to keep an inventory on hand of clothing items for the girls. They also have their own in-house store—Mimi’s Market—where the young mothers can earn the opportunity to shop from. In addition, they also donate clothing items such as coats to the foster families they work with.

“We don’t only get donated clothing,” Jackie Hisel Program Services Coordinator for All God’s Children pointed out. “We get baby food and food items [as well].” Hisel is the program’s contact point for donations or volunteering services.

Last week’s donation included a wide range of items for the program’s participants.

“It’s everything that they would need, all the way down to perfume and earrings,” Cameron explained. Fourteen boxes of items total were given to the program, and every item included will get utilized and appreciated.

Smith said that it is with the donations and help of businesses like Cato and area churches that allow the program to operate after 18 years. She said that the community’s support has been crucial.

“We could not have done it without this community,” Smith said. 

For more information on All God’s Children, email info@kyagc.org, or visit www.kyallgodschildren.org.