Sunbury Cleaners collects coats for a cause

By LENNY C. LEPOLA

News Assis­tant Man­ag­ing Editor

Over the last six Christ­mas hol­i­day sea­sons, Sun­bury Clean­ers employ­ees have teamed up with David Wid­der of Cald­well Banker to pro­vide win­ter coats for Cen­tral Ohio needy families.

Last year the drive net­ted over 750 coats, with many of them going to Big Wal­nut area fam­i­lies in need via Big Wal­nut Friends Who Share, east­ern Delaware County’s grass-roots social ser­vice agency. The rest went to Bet­ter Way Min­istry in the Short North dis­trict in Columbus.

Now in its sev­enth year, the Widder/Sunbury Clean­ers win­ter coat drive will accept win­ter coats, sweaters, hats, gloves and blan­kets through early Decem­ber. Many coats will again go to Big Wal­nut Friends Who Share, Bet­ter Way Min­istries, and all blan­kets will be deliv­ered to Faith Mis­sion in Columbus.

Sun­bury Clean­ers owner Den­nis Bell said the coat drive is a Sun­bury Clean­ers labor of love, with store employ­ees pitch­ing in to exam­ine them for wear and pro­fes­sion­ally clean them before delivery.

Bell said when the coat project began seven years ago 150 coats were col­lected, dry-cleaned and dis­trib­uted. The sec­ond year boasted 250 coats, and by the third year 440 coats were col­lected and dis­trib­uted. Dur­ing the coat drive’s fourth year the com­mu­nity donated 600 coats.

Mil­burn said while any size coat in any con­di­tion will be accepted, cleaned and dis­trib­uted, this year she is con­cerned about get­ting enough children’s coats to fill the need.

“I’m cer­tain we’re going to need adult coats, we always do at this time of year as the weather starts to turn cold,” Mil­burn said. “But dona­tions have been down so far this year, only 200 coats so far, and I’m wor­ried about kids who will need win­ter coats, hats and gloves.”

Mil­burn said to also remem­ber to donate used sweaters, and that blan­kets are always in short sup­ply at Faith Mis­sion dur­ing cold win­ter months.

“It doesn’t mat­ter what con­di­tion they’re in,” Mil­burn added. “They will be cleaned and dis­trib­uted to some­where they are needed.”

To par­tic­i­pate in the Win­ter Coat Drive drop used win­ter coats, infant through adult sizes, sweaters, hats, gloves and blan­kets at Sun­bury Clean­ers, 23 West Granville Street, Sun­bury, or at the Sun­bury Clean­ers store at High­land Lakes. Both stores are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mon­day through Fri­day, and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays.

The Big Wal­nut Friends Who Share Store at 216 High Street, Sun­bury, is open to those in need on Wednes­day morn­ings from 9 until 11:30 a.m., and dur­ing the evening on the sec­ond and fourth Tues­day of each month from 6:30 until 8 p.m.

On the sec­ond Sat­ur­day of each month, senior cit­i­zens can visit the Friends Who Share Store from 10 a.m. until 12 noon. Vol­un­teers help out at the cen­ter from 9 until 11:30 a.m. every Mon­day morn­ing. The store accepts donated items on Mon­days and Wednes­days from 9 until 11:30 a.m.

To vol­un­teer, to donate needed items, or to make a finan­cial con­tri­bu­tion to Friends Who Share projects, call 740–965-9596. Cash dona­tions may be sent to Big Wal­nut Friends Who Share, P.O. Box 424, Sun­bury, 43074.

Big Wal­nut Friends Who Share is on the Web at <http://www.bigwalnutfriendswhoshare.org/ >.

Posted by Gary Henery on Oct 31 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.