Koats 4 Kids seeking donations for annual winter outerwear drive

COURIER STAFF

WATERLOO — Financial donors are being sought for an annual effort to purchase winter outerwear for disadvantaged children.

Organizers of the Koats 4 Kids project, which benefits children from low-income families, work with 35 schools in Cedar Falls, Elk Run Heights, Evansdale, Gilbertville, Hudson, and Waterloo. They serve children from preschool to high school at public and Catholic schools in those communities.

"Our goal is buy 1,200 coats, snow pants, boots, hats and glove for our elementary age kids and 300 coats for middle and high school," Julie Ehlers, who leads the effort, said in an email. "As we start purchasing the items we are finding out that the inventories are very low so we may have to work a little harder to find the winter items and pay a little more than we had estimated."

In a letter to supporters of the annual drive, she noted how much the clothing can help children.

"When kids have the appropriate winter gear they can play in the snow with their classmates and not feel left out just watching from the blacktop," she wrote. "Middle and high school students will have something warm to wear while walking to school instead of staying home because they only have a sweatshirt and it was not warm enough to make the trek.

"Kids with a warm coat do not miss school days due to not having anything warm enough to wear and they are able to stay current with class work. Many of our schools have over 80% of their kids qualifying for free lunch, so if a kid misses school they may also miss out on breakfast and lunch," she added.

Union Community celebrates after beating Center Point-Urbana in the 3A regional finals to qualify for state. This marks the Knights' ninth state berth.

Last year, Koats 4 Kids handed out 1,304 coats, 1,200 pairs of boots and 887 snow pants. Since 2012, the project has distributed a total of 8,307 coats, 5,629 pairs of boots, and 3,588 snow pants along with thousands of hats, gloves, and scarves.

Ehlers said a $25 donation will buy a coat, hat, gloves and scarf for one child. A donation of $45 adds the boots while $65 will also pay for snow pants.

Donations can be mailed to the Waterloo Community Foundation–K4K, P.O. Box 1253, Waterloo, IA 50704. Online donations can be made at wloocommunityfoundation.org.

The organization accepts donations all year long, but the goal is to have items for this year delivered to students before winter break.

For more information about the project, go online to facebook.com/koats4kids.waterloo. Contact Ehlers at juliea58@mchsi.com or (319) 240-2254.