Dozens of children went back to school this year with new clothes, shoes and even backpacks, thanks to a group of helping hands.

Over the past nine years, Windham’s Helping Hands has organized and facilitated a summer- long clothing drive in cooperation with the Nesmith Library that volunteers say characterizes the generosity of town residents.

“We recognized how generous the people of Windham were at Christmas time. We hoped and were proven correctly that they want to help the children on the first day of school as well,” said co-founder and committee member Ruth-Anne Calandra. “It couldn’t be done without the generosity of the people of Windham.”

Each year, on or around the Fourth of July, Helping Hands puts out a small wooden facade of the front of a classic school house and decorates the front of the display with child-shaped paper tags listing the back-to-school needs of a real-life Windham school child.

Working closely with school counselors and town officials, Helping Hands identifies children and families who may benefit from the donation-based program and works with parents to create a tag for each child with their clothing and shoe sizes. Library patrons are encouraged to take the tags – which only identifies the child’s program assigned code and not his or her name – and help provide for their back-to-school clothing needs.

“We really do believe that you feel better when you start school with new shoes,” said co-founder and president Denise Dolloff. “Windham has a reputation of affluence, and we want to level the playing field. We want these kids to feel proud when they get to school.”

Working with several other women – all volunteers or committee members – Dolloff and Calandra spent a couple of hours on a recent morning sorting through the summer’s donations and double-checking to make sure each child has everything he or she needs to start the school year on the right foot.

“This is all from the people of Windham. People really want to help,” Dolloff said, gesturing across a room sprawling with clothes, shoes and backpacks. “We’ve done this for so long, there’s no training involved.”

So far this year, 12 of the children on their list have not yet had their requests met, and Dolloff said the group uses cash donations and profits from fundraising activities throughout the year to make up the difference.

As the Helping Hands members go through the sorting process, they keep an eye out for any missing items. Later in the day, Dolloff will combine everything into one giant back-to-school shopping list to ensure that none of the children miss out.

Since its inception, Helping Hands has grown from eight volunteers to a committee of 20. They not only organize the summer clothing drive, but the holiday giving trees program each holiday season. The group raises money throughout the year to not only help Windham’s school children, but purchase heating oil, gasoline or transportation costs and even hearing aids for those in need.

“We certainly have big homes, but people are extremely generous. Just because we’re affluent doesn’t mean we don’t have families in need,” said co-founder and Windhams’ Human services coordinator Kathy Davis. “We try to be there (for people).”

Helping Hands works with other town officials, from the fire and police departments to the local American Legion post, to coordinate the town’s charity needs and events throughout the year. Davis, an employee of the town for 25 years, said it was a great way to bring people in Windham together.

“We’re trying to make a community out of it,” she said.