Coats for Kids gets lots of donated warmth
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald Donated coats, and hats and scarves, were distributed Saturday, the culmination of the Coats for Kids drive sponsored by the Moses Lake Rotary.
MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake residents donated coats by the dozens, and money to buy even more coats, along with gloves and hats and sweaters to the annual Coats for Kids drive sponsored by the Moses Lake Rotary.
The tables at Chief Moses Middle School were filled with coats, and a separate table was piled with sweaters and hats. “There’s probably 600, 700 coats here, you think?” said a Rotary volunteer to organizer Bob Tatum.
“Oh, easily,” Tatum said. Distribution was Saturday.
The Moses Lake Rotary has been sponsoring Coats for Kids for – well, for so long that nobody’s quite sure how long. “We’re going to probably go with 20 (years),” Tatum said.
“We’ve been collecting coats for a month,” he said, and while most of the coats were for kids, there were plenty in adult sizes as well. “Quite a few are new.” The Rotary received donations of new coats and money donations for yet more new coats.
About a dozen Rotary members spent an hour Friday night setting up, Tatum said. But “Cobie’s does most of the work,” said volunteer Dave Campbell. The owners of Cobie’s Fine Dry Cleaning volunteered to clean the donated coats. This is the business’s first year as a participant.
Tatum said most of the coats, about 95 percent, are distributed. Any coats or clothing remaining are donated; for 2018 they’re going to the New Hope domestic violence shelter or the warming center operated by the Grant County Homeless Task Force.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.