2 Coats Campaign results in warm coats and warm hearts for children in mentoring program

  • by Jennifer Kneuss
  • December 5, 2011
  • 363
                        
Summary: More than 1,000 coats are in the process of being distributed throughout northeast Ohio to children participating in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, thanks to the generosity of area churches and community members. Miracles come in all forms, and for over a thousand children in Ohio, they are receiving the Christmas miracle of a warm new coat. As reported by the Bargain Hunter two weeks ago, a 2 Coats campaign started by the congregation of Dover’s NewPointe Community Church and their satellite campuses in North Canton and Millersburg set out to collect gently worn coats and donations in order to provide 250 winter coats for children participating in the East Central Big Brothers Big Sisters program of Tuscarawas, Carroll, Holmes, and Wayne Counties. The goal of 250 coats was quickly reached and then surpassed. Hundreds of coats were donated, and within five days, the story, which had been featured in several other media outlets as well, had touched so many hearts that $11,000 in donations also poured in to buy new coats. The Old Navy store in North Canton also came on board with the project and offered a significant discount for outerwear purchased there in order to let the money stretch as far as possible. “It has been fantastic,” said Matt Beres, a NewPointe staff member who was part of the project that originally began with the Velocity children’s program at the church and quickly spread throughout several communities. “We were able to donate a total of 1,394 coats, not only to East Central BBBS but also to children in the programs in Stark, Summit, and even BBBS of Greater Cleveland! The response has been phenomenal.” “We’ve already distributed coats to many of the children in our program, where we have approximately 300 matches right now,” said Kamelia Fisher, who is director of the BBBS agency in New Philadelphia. “We had a great need, and we opened up the coat distribution to the kids in our school based program as well, so we could reach more children. We also distributed some adult coats to parents from those coats that were donated. I am always very happy and excited when someone else in the community reaches out to serve children.” Fisher said her organization, which serves children ages 4 through 18, will be distributing the coats through Friday, December 9. “NewPointe is certainly vested in the community. We could never have done this without them. It is very inspiring.” “We are always in need of ‘bigs’ for our ‘littles’,” added Fisher. “We have approximately 80 kids on our waiting list right now, who are primarily boys ages 10 to 16. To volunteer as a mentor, you must be 18 for our community based program.” Younger teens can volunteer through the school based program. Anyone who wishes to find out more about being a much needed mentor a child is asked to call 330-339-6916, or toll free 1-888-364-5965. The BBBS director said that seeing children receive their coats was a wonderful experience for her staff. “Probably the most heartwarming thing to watch was seeing the children pick out the coats that they liked, and that matched their personality. It gives them another choice to make, and sometimes they don’t have a lot of choices in their lives.”


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