Your used coat could warm a child
A kid pulls a winter coat off a rack and slips it on.
“Mom, I like this one,” the kid says. “Can we get it?”
For many families today, the answer might be, “No, we can’t afford it.”
That’s why it’s so gratifying for Sue Dobbe to watch a similar scene unfold as she volunteers for the Rotary Club of Crystal Lake Dawnbreakers Coat-A-Kid program.
“Mom can say, ‘Yes,’ ” said Dobbe, who oversees marketing and public relations for the club.
The program has provided free winter coats to families for more than a decade, its roughly 50 volunteers quietly doing their thing every year.
The club asks parents and students at schools throughout the Crystal Lake area to bring gently used coats and drop them in huge boxes.
Club members then pick them up, sort through them and hand them out to needy families and children every Friday at the Algonquin Township office building.
It’s simple, really. But the program’s impact is far-reaching, offering parents a way to teach their kids about giving back.
And more needy families than ever are given one less stress to worry about this winter season.
“You feel like you’ve done something really worthwhile especially when you see the light in their eyes when they go, ‘This one fits me,’” Dobbe said.
In its first night of distribution, the club only had about 20 of nearly 400 coats donated left. Many times, the group runs out of coats and has to turn people away.
The program continues throughout the month, with the last distribution day scheduled for Dec. 4.
Even if your child isn’t a part of any Crystal Lake area school, you still can help by bringing your donations on a distribution night to the back building at Algonquin Township Office, 3702 Northwest Highway.
Distribution takes place in that building from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Nov. 13, Nov. 20 and Dec. 4.
Hats, gloves, scarves, snow suits and basically any winter gear is sought.
“I remember being that parent long before I was a Dawnbreaker and pulling out coats and saying, ‘This isn’t going to fit this year.’ What do you do with it?” Dobbe said.
She’d send it to school with her child, never seeing the outcome.
Well, now she’s seen the outcome.
“Whole families come to this, and they’re trying on all the coats,” Dobbe said.
Some asked if they could bring last year’s coats back so someone else could use them, she said.
“That is charity and community,” she said.
Besides the Algonquin Township, coats can be dropped off until Dec. 2 at elementary schools in districts 46 and 47, St. Thomas School, Immanuel Lutheran School and Prairie Grove.
