’The Rotary Club of Ventura is currently conducting its annual Rotary “Coats for Kids” project, which benefits many underprivileged children and families in the west county area. This is the seventh year this project has been run by the Rotary Club of Ventura. This year, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department’s Headquarters, Fillmore, Ojai, and Camarillo area stations have joined forces with the Rotary Club to expand the program.

Spearheaded by the Rotary Club of Ventura and in partnership with Ventura South Rotary, Ventura East Rotary, and Oxnard Sunrise Rotary, the project is designed to collect, clean and distribute over 10,000 coats and jackets of all sizes. The Rotary Club of Ventura organizes the project. The Ventura County Star, Gold Coast Broadcasting and Four Seasons Cleaners are the project’s sponsors.

The goal of the project is to provide children and adults with warm coats for the winter season that they would not otherwise be able to have. Donated coats may be either new or used. They are collected at various locations throughout the west county area, picked up by volunteer members from the various Rotary clubs, and taken to Four Seasons Cleaners of Ventura, where they are cleaned free of charge. Four Seasons Cleaners then returns the coats to the Rotary Club of Ventura for distribution. Recipients of the cleaned coats are service organizations and schools in the community including the Boys & Girls Club of Oxnard and Ventura, the Rescue Mission, The Salvation Army, local churches, and Casa Pacifica.

Last year 7,000 coats and jackets were given to children and adults in the greater Ventura community. The Rotary Club of Ventura also distributes coats at its annual Christmas Party in December. Last year over 50 needy elementary school students from Lincoln, E P Foster and Sheridan Way schools were able to select coats for themselves and for members of their families. Hundreds of coats were also distributed via local service organizations to those in need in the Saticoy area and the city of Fillmore, with the assistance of the Sheriffs West County Headquarters Station. This year the club will again distribute coats and jackets to children from the same schools, and will expand their outreach to support coat distributions to those in need in the communities of Saticoy, El Rio, Camarillo, Ojai, and Fillmore.

In addition to the regular collection box sites that have been used in past years and which can be found at www.venturarotary.org., the Sheriffs Department has provided additional collection locations at police stations and some city government locations in Camarillo, Ojai, and Fillmore. A box is also located next to the Headquarters patrol station desk located at the Sheriff’s Complex at the Government Center in Ventura. Donations of coats and jackets of all sizes will be gratefully accepted through December 31, 2010.