Norfolk Sunrise Coats for Kids distributes 800 coats
Chris Abbott
Editor
The Rotary Club of Norfolk Sunrise – and many generous community donors - helped share some warmth on Oct. 24th with their annual Coats for Kids campaign.
“About 800 coats this year, which is about the same as last year,” said Sunrise Rotarian Jim Simpson, co-organizer of this year’s Coats for Kids at First Baptist Church in Simcoe. “And we had probably around 200-250 pieces of knitted stuff, like toques and blankets for kids. More of that this year. There’s a group of knitters in Langton and they provided a huge amount of support.
“I am delighted,” said Norfolk Sunrise Rotarian co-organizer Cathy Harrop. “We had a great turnout – people were here from 7:30 in the morning… and one person made the comment that this was going to help them get through the winter – they had four kids.
“It’s a big rush, and amazingly most of it is done 35 minutes after we start.”
Simpson said Peerless Cleaners – Russ and Elisa Wilson, and their son Jacob - were once again tremendous supporters.
“All of these coats were cleaned by Peerless Cleaners!” said Simpson.
Coats were distributed free of charge on Oct. 24.
“It’s open to the community, anybody who needs something to keep them warm over the winter. We encourage people to come out and select for themselves, select for their children, and if there are people they know who can benefit from being a little bit warmer… select something for them, too.”
Local schools were also great supporters, said Simpson.
“We go through a collection phase, where we collect the coats. This year we included 15 different schools. We put collection boxes in the schools and coordinated with church offices and principals. I am thinking about half of the coats came from that source.”
Simpson said the Rotary Club reached out to Youth Unlimited and Church Out Serving to connect with more people. They also coordinated with the local Women’s Shelter and Norfolk Community Help Centre.
After many of the coats had been picked up, remaining coats were divided into bundles for various local groups, including Church Out Serving.
“Mostly the program is designed for people to come in off the street, let them help themselves. It gives us a chance to meet people, and gives them a chance to see something good going on in the community. They frequently bring their children.”
The 9-10:30 morning event started early with about 60 people waiting outside the church hall.
“After that we lose track of how many people,” Simpson smiled.
“The lap blankets were gone very quick, which was a surprise to us.”
The Rotary Club of Norfolk Sunrise has been running the Coats for Kids program for more than 25 years.
“Next year we’re thinking of making it a two-day event.”
The final prep group, greeters and helpers included Pam Shantz, Keith Jones, Wolf Lindmann, Jim Dawson, John Wallace, Linda Muir, Marjorie Dawson, Mary Mercato, Nancy Sherwin, Gail Bouw, Harrop and Simpson.
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