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Coats for Those in Need
Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: Winter 2025 | Photograph By: Susan Renfro
The Community Coat Drive is literally a lifesaver during this brutally frigid season.
Eli Bock
2024-25’s Community Coat Drive outer-wear continues to be outer-this-world. It’s still orbiting our universe and will continue until Spring when ground begins to thaw.
The Highlands Emergency Council, Mountaintop Rotary, and scores of resident contributors (with coats and/or checks) ensure that anyone of any age who needs an extra layer of warmth and love this winter should surely have it. Something sized just right. Organizers like Debi Bock and Duncan Greenlee have dedicated countless hours to leading this effort for Mountaintop Rotary, including leveraging grant funds to purchase new coats.
The 2025 Keeping Our Community Warm project is focused on children, the elderly, and individuals in need of a coat, especially those working outside through the winter season. Working with the Highlands Emergency Council, the Rotary volunteers worked to purchase specific coats for children in December and continue to collect coats through the winter months.
You will see collection boxes to drop off coats throughout town in churches, banks and restaurants with the logo Keeping our Community Warm. No one should be cold in Highlands.
Each year, this effort grows and our community generously donates new and used warm winter outerwear.
Debi recounts a touching moment from the drive: “A man came to us, visibly cold, requesting a coat. A volunteer brought him a well-insulated coat. As he put it on and felt the warmth, he smiled brightly, through tears of gratitude. We were all moved by the power of this effort to make a difference.”
When you provide cash or check, volunteers like Debi and Duncan take that money and research the garment size and style appropriate for recipients. Please keep giving through March to the Highlands Emergency Council – highlandsemergencycouncil.com; and/or Mountain Rotary – mtrgives.org. We’ve still got families to warm and smiles to share.
