Organization donates children’s winter wear

 

SOUTH POINT — Winter will be here before we know it and a Columbus-based organization is helping to make sure as many children as possible stay warm.

Beverly Robinson, executive director and founder of Coats4Children, presented 24 new coats to Phyllis Newman, family community engagement manager for the Lawrence County Early Childhood Academy, to distribute to children who need them this winter.

“We agree that all children deserve to be warm regardless of their background or economic status,” Robinson said. “If a child has proper outerwear, they will have fewer days off from school because of sickness, which means fewer days off work for parents to care for the child.”

Coats4Children is a nonprofit organization that has been around for six years. This year they are hoping to distribute more than 1,000 coats. The donations come from fundraisers, corporate sponsors, and coat drives throughout the year.

One thing Robinson is proud of is that the coats given to the children all come from major department stores.

“Anywhere that sells children apparel,” Robinson said. “If a child is at the bus stop, no one knows that the coat came from Coats4Children.”

Newman said the Family Advocates for the Head Start program are seeing families with a variety of needs earlier this year than they normally do.

“Most of our families are working minimum wage jobs, but are getting their hours cut in half which makes their priorities gas and food, not necessarily clothing,” Newman said. She added that before Coats4Children was involved, Family Advocates would purchase coats for a few of the children.

“We won’t let children be without a coat once the temperature drops,” Newman said.

Newman is hoping to have the coats distributed by next week.

“I want to thank Beverly Robinson and Coats4Children for contacting our Head Start program,” Newman said. “Normally, the coats are distributed to the northern part of Ohio. We are always looking for resources to share with the families who live in Lawrence County. We are very grateful.”