If the weather is cold and rainy, a child may opt to put a hat and gloves on before venturing outdoors. Some children don’t have that option and the Ironton Area Kiwanis Club is working to rectify such situations.

“Operation Mitts” collects gloves, mittens and stocking hats/toboggans for local school children. Collected items are then given to school bus drivers and given to any child without gloves or a hat.

“Now is the time to get them,” Steve Call, member of the Ironton Kiwanis Club, stated in a press release. “If you are out shopping and you find some on clearance, purchase some and bring them to Liberty Federal Savings Bank (314 Park Ave. in Ironton), Ironton AAA (624 S. Fourth St. in Ironton) or the Ohio University Southern faculty office in the Dingus Building (1804 Liberty St. in Ironton).”

Ironton City Schools Superintendent Dean Nance, Call said, is “100 percent” supportive of the project, which began in May.

“The program is ongoing,” Call said. “We just didn’t push it really hard because all the stores were full of summer clothes. Now is the time to buy these items.”

Kiwanis clubs are volunteer-based organizations and its members dedicate more than 12 million hours of volunteer service in a typical year worldwide.

The Ironton Kiwanis Club meets at noon every Thursday in the City Center in Ironton.

Financial donations that go toward purchasing these items can be mailed to Kiwanis, P.O. Box 4192, Ironton, Ohio 45638. For more information, contact Call at 740-533-4559 or by email at irontonkiwanis@gmail.com.