Coats for Kids 2009 Warms Children's Hearts, Bodies

It was another stellar year for The Salvation Army’s Coats for Kids program. On Oct. 29, nearly 8,300 donated coats were distributed to as many children at 10 locations throughout the Twin Cities metro area. (View photos.)

“That’s a 2,300-coat increase over last year,” said Major Darryl Leedom, commander of the Twin Cities Salvation Army. “We are thankful for everyone who helped make this year’s coat drive such a success.” 

The coats were given to people like Aziza Brown (pictured), a currently unemployed Minneapolis resident with three young children. She arrived at The Salvation Army in Northeast Minneapolis to pick up coats at 7 a.m. – three hours before the doors opened.

“This is a really big help,” said Brown, smiling, while carrying hats, mittens and three gently used coats. “Buying coats for my children – that would be $200. I’m very thankful for this.”

Brown was smart to show up early. By 10 a.m., lines of people were spilling outside of coat boutiques across the Twin Cities.

“By 5 p.m., every location in the metro area was out of coats,” Leedom said.

Donated coats were collected throughout October at several metro area businesses. Trucks would later haul mountains of coats to The Salvation Army headquarters in Roseville, where volunteer like Dan Christiansen spent entire days wading through them.

“This is my first time volunteering for The Salvation Army – the people are wonderful here,” said Christiansen, a former manufacturing quality engineer who spent 30-plus hours sorting coats. “I may be unemployed right now, but I’m not going to sit around the house all day. This is a great experience.”

Coats for Kids is a joint effort of The Salvation Army and 5 Eyewitness News. Additional partners include Kowalski’s Markets, Perkins restaurants, Cub Foods stores, StarTribune, 102.9 Lite FM and AmeriPride Services.

Since beginning 24 years ago, Coats for Kids has provided nearly 270,000 coats and winter accessories to children in need.