Mickelson Foundation hosts fifth annual Start Smart

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Phil Mickelson shakes hands with a young boy at the first-annual Start Smart program in 2005. This year marks the fifth straight year of the Phil and Amy Mickelson Foundation hosting the event.

SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- The Phil and Amy Mickelson Foundation is preparing to host its fifth annual Start Smart program, where 1,500 county school children are treated to a shopping spree for back-to-school clothes and given backpacks full of school supplies. What for most guests is the dream of a lifetime begins at 5:30 a.m., Saturday, Aug. 22 at Walmart, 3382 Murphy Canyon Rd. in San Diego.

This year's first- through fourth-graders have been invited from 45 schools in 12 districts countywide. The children are chosen on the basis of need and achievement with help from the San Diego County Office of Education and school principals.

The Mickelsons designed the program to help improve pupils' self-esteem and consequently their attendance, participation and achievement in the classroom. When this session is complete, 6,500 pupils from 135 schools in 32 districts will have benefited from Start Smart since 2005.