Islanders donate 210 coats to the local One Warm Coat project

The Town of Friday Harbor and the San Juan Island Family Resource Center asked. And the community responded, donating 210 coats for the One Warm Coat community service project.

An elated Roxanna Zalmanek, town permit technician, e-mailed a Certificate of Appreciation to the community and asked that it be published.

"If you could share this Certificate of Appreciation with our wonderful community, it would be greatly appreciated," Zalmanek e-mailed. "The Town's coat drive went well, very well. We received 210 beautiful warm coats to share with those with special needs in our community. The Family Resource Center will take it from here now. They will start with the distribution on the 23rd."

One Warm Coat is dedicated to distributing reusable coats, free of charge, directly to local children and adults. The program is an easy way to pass along coats and jackets that you no longer need.

The Town of Friday Harbor and the Family Resource Center collected clean, gently used coats and jackets in the Town Hall Administration Office until Nov. 12.

“More people than ever need help these days,” said Sherri Wood, president and national coordinator for One Warm Coat. “I am proud to be of the thousands of coat drive organizers whose creativity and generosity of spirit are making a real difference in their own communities.”

One Warm Coat is a national non-profit organization that supports and encourages coat drives. It helps individuals, groups, companies and organizations across the country collect coats and deliver them to local agencies that distribute the coats free to people in need.

More than one million coats have been provided to those in need at no cost since its inception in 1992.

Zalmanek said she hopes the local One Warm Coat project will be an annual event.

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