900 coats donated to Coats for Kids event

MOSES LAKE — The volunteers with the Moses Lake Rotary Club were used to giving away coast to kids and needy families every fall. It's something they've done for the last 15 or so.

But no one ever remembered someone coming in and making a donation on the morning of the giveaway.

“My kids collected these from friends and family, and we wanted to donate them,” said Rachel Tome as she held up two giant sacks full of coats.

“Have they been washed?” a volunteer asked.

“Yeah, we washed them,” Tome replied, handing the sacks over to the volunteer.

She left quickly, almost before the volunteers could thank her.

“The community is what makes this work,” said Donna Goude, an accountant with CliftonLarsonAllen in Moses Lake and the organizer of this year's Coats for Kids giveaway at Chief Moses Middle School on Saturday.

Goude has been involved with the Coats for Kids — which provides free winter coats to kids and adults regardless of need — for the last eight years.

She stands in the middle of the multipurpose room at Chief Moses Middle School surrounded by piles of coats on tables, arranged by size. A line snakes around as people file in, ready to see if there's anything they can take today.

“It's four coats per family,” Dave Campbell, a loan officer for Umpqua Bank and Rotary volunteer, told people as they were singing up. “Once you get your coats, we have warm clothes over here, and there's no limit to what you can take.”

“A lot of people are struggling,” said Campbell, who has been involved in the coat give-away since it started. “Getting free clothing to people in need is important. We do not care where people are from or who they need these coats for. Everybody's welcome.”

Veronica Baeza and her daughter Salena sorted through knitted winter caps. She smiled slightly and said she'd found what she was looking for, what her family needed for the winter.

“I don't have much money and I have five kids,” Baeza said. “My kids need coats.”

According to Rory Knapp, a Rotary volunteer, people donated about 900 coats this year. All of those coats were cleaned as well, by the owners of Cedar Street Cleaners, who donates the time and effort to this project.

Goude said the most important part of this is the willingness of people to care for their neighbors in a very simple way.

“We couldn't do this without the community opening its hearts and donating coats. It's a group effort,” she said. “And it's nice to see the excitement on the faces of the kids.”