GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – A local organization plans to hand out winter jackets to roughly 3,000 children this weekend.
Brown County’s Salvation Army is in its 30th year of the Coats for Kids program.
Dozens of volunteers were busy Friday sorting the coats at Green Bay’s Kroc Community Center.
“Infant size zero to three months, all the way to adult extra large. Our high school kids, especially our high school boys who maybe play football or wrestle, they are quite large and need those adult-sized coats.”
Social Services Director Nan Pahl says the new and gently worn items will be distributed to kids from low-income families on Saturday.
“It’ll be about 1,300 families coming through.”
While Saturday is the only distribution day, Pahl says there is a way for them to help those who didn’t register in time.
“We can do a thrift store voucher appointment with you, because some of the coats that are remaining after Coats for Kids, we will take to our thrift store.”
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Pahl explains why the organization offers the program.
“We know that there are families in our community that are struggling, and these aren’t just families that are just waiting at home for somebody to give them something.”
She says they started collecting coats in September, with the gently used ones being dry cleaned at no cost to the Salvation Army.
The coats arrived at the Kroc Center on Thursday.
In addition to being low-income, Pahl notes applicants must be Brown County residents who can provide proof of address and household.
Similar programs are held in many other cold-weather communities that the Salvation Army serves.
