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This was a community project - not just Rotary!

Contributed by: Phyllis Dwyer on 2/18/2008

Longmont Rotary's 18th Annual Winter Warmth Coat Drive, which supplies warm clothing to the OUR Center for distribution to the needy, was a huge success thanks to the efforts of many individuals and groups in the community.

We hit a snag on the first day when we lerned our storage space had been leased and that one of our supporting cleaning establishments had closed.

As soon as word got out that we needed help, a Rotarian, Tom Redmond, offered space for storage and volunteers for the OUR Center offered to help with the laundry duties.

Bob Goff, local caterer, donated $500 towards the coat drive and asked that the Rotary Club match his funds. The Club raised $1,600 which is used to purchase children's coats and sizes that we don't get through donations.

The Daily Times-Call provided beautiful, large ads giving the dates and locations of all the drop-off sites; KGUD radio made over 80 public service announcements.

Nanna Jones and Nettie Taylor, teachers at Westview Middle School, delivered 70 bags - over 700 coats - that had been collected at their school. Eight members of the National Junior Honor Society did a magnificent job of rallying the student body to donate to this project.

Members of the community who knit hats, gloves, mittens and scarves donated several large bags of beautiful new, handmade garments. Thank you!

Over 40 members of the Skyline High School Student Government held fundraisers and made nearly 100 fleece blankets for children. Many of these were donated to the Y-Pals Christmas Party. According to Sheridan Wolfe, Director of Marketing and Resource Development for the YMCA, ..."in years past, the Christmas Party was attended by over 300 children and their families who were referred by Longmont human service agencies. This year, responses indicated we would host about 100 more families than last year. The Rotary Coat Drive came to the rescue and handmade fleece blankets from Skyline High School were a big hit, along with hand knit items from local knitters. These were distributed along with family photos, a visit with Santa, and a new book." A large Thank You card was signed by the children at the Party and Sheridan Wolfe delivered it to Emily Spangler, President of the SHS Student Government on their behalf.

Over 60 Rotarians volunteered to collect, sort and distribute the items. Our long standing cleaning establishments, Francis St., Main St. and Meadow View Cleaners, continued to sort, launder and dry clean hundreds of coats, blankets, etc.

Volunteers from Life Bridge Christian Church, under the direction of Tom Redmond and Jack Hay, hauled the coats from the storage facility to Columbine Elementary School for the distribution. They set up racks, made by a member of the church, and hung the coats according to type and size in preparation for the event. This enables a very dignified and pleasant experience.

After a rather bumpy start, this drive was indeed a success. Thank you to all who donated, knit, collected, sorted, washed and cleaned. The demand increases each year and the response of the community and volunteers continues to match the need.

According to the OUR Center, over 400 households received coats so far and we still have some cold weather ahead. They are completely out of children's coats so we will be buying what we can to help meet that demand.

Our Spring "Cleaning" Coat Drive will run from May 1 to May 31 so please keep those dates in mind when you do your spring cleaning. We store these donations to help meet the needs in the early fall when temperatures dip. For more information call 303-772-7169.

Phyllis Dwyer
Coat Drive Chairperson
Rotary Club of Longmont


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Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
Submitted By: Brigette Rodriguez
posted on 2/21/2008 @ 10:10:02 PM
Rated Story
I definitely will forward the link to this story on to all my Longmont friends in preparation of the Spring Coat Drive...got a few already to donate myself! Also, great job to the Skyline HS Student Government! I was at their bake sale table when they were raising funds to buy the supplies for the fleece blankets, so they worked extra hard to do this :)
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Submitted By: Stephanie Baum
posted on 2/18/2008 @ 9:40:47 PM
Rated Story
Great job Phyllis!!
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Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Phyllis Dwyer

Longmont , CO

Phyllis Dwyer has posted 5 stories and 0 comments since joining on 2/7/2008. Phyllis Dwyer 's average story rating is 5.
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