HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — The Puritan Cleaner’s Coats for Kids campaign is underway. For the next month, the public is invited to drop off a gently used coat for someone in need at one of the many Puritan locations.
They also do big coat drives at area schools – on Friday they visited Henrico County’s Twin Hickory Elementary.
Friday’s Blazer Blast at Twin Hickory Elementary School had two goals: collecting coats for the Puritan Cleaners Coats for Kids campaign, and teaching the youngsters a valuable lesson in character.
“Our theme for this Blazer Blast is being heroes,” explained Twin Hickory Principal Mike Dussault. “Heroes are loyal to the people they serve, and were going to be loyal to our communities. So we’re giving back with the Coats for Kids campaign.”
Their hard work paid off.
“Today we collected over 250 coats,” said Norman Way of Puritan Cleaners. “We’re going take them back, clean them up and get them to the Salvation Army and we just can’t thank Richmond enough.
Today’s drive wouldn’t have been such a success without help from Twin Hickory parents at home.
“It’s just a great opportunity to give I just can’t imagine them not having a coat when it’s cold outside,” said parent Heidi Smith.
And that’s been the goal for decades – keeping area kids warm when the weather turns cold.
“I think we’re expecting to collect 17,000 from the Richmond area in the next four weeks,” said Gary Glover, president of Puritan Cleaners. “And in the 28 years we’ve been doing this, we’ve collected close to a half a million coats that the community’s given to this program. It’s unbelievable.”
