The Sylvan Lake and Area Community Partners’ Association is looking for donations for their coats for kids program again this season.
This program provides coats not only to children but to adults and anyone in need of coats for the winter season.
The community is invited to drop off new and gently used coats to the association and staff will take the coats to be cleaned at a laundry mat.
“People are already starting to come in to get coats,” said Ingrid Soanes, with the Community Partners’ Association.
The Association accepts coats for all ages from newborns to full grown adults as Soanes added everybody needs a coat.
The program has been running for years now, with last year’s program running from October to March with the association serving 492 clients with Soanes adding last winterwas a mild winter.
“There’s definitely different circumstances with everyone,” Soanes said. “Some families can’t afford it because they have two or three kids, maybe a husband got laid off orsomeone isn’t work. There’s different circumstances. We had a lady who looks after a boy for a friend and she knows the child doesn’t have a coat and she came in and got acoat, the situations vary.”
Even though the association served 492 clients, Soanes said this was still not enough and there is still a desperate need for winter gear - last year in particular it came down tocoats in youth sizes and ski pants.
“We had next to nothing for ski pants so we had to ask for people to help and donate if they could for that age of ski pant,” explained Soanes.
reporter@sylvanlakenews.com