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Santa Clara Valley Legal Aid’s Coat Drive
 Organizer Laura Bartels is pictured with three young ladies wearing their new coats which they received from last year’s coat drive giveaway. Photo courtesy Bob Crum. By Anonymous — Wednesday, November 28th, 2018
Please support Santa Clara Valley Legal Aid’s Coat Drive to raise enough money to put a coat on every child that comes through the line this Christmas in Fillmore
This project idea started in 2005 when I was watching the kids waiting with anticipation to see Santa at the North Fillmore Community Storefront for the Fillmore Volunteer Fire Department toy giveaway. Looking at the line, none of the kids had on coats. My mind thought immediately “Did the children forget their coats? They knew it was cold and that the wait was long.” The line snaked as the little boy tucked into his mother and the realization hit me like the cold wind- The little boy didn’t forget his coat. He doesn’t have a coat. Please join Santa Clara Valley Legal Aid and Fillmore Community’s Winter Coat Drive with support from the Fillmore Volunteer Firefighters Foundation, Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, Fillmore Rotary and other community organizations. In December we will be giving away brand-new warm winter coats to needy children of the Santa Clara Valley who are standing outside in line in Fillmore to receive their toy from Santa. There are no “administrative” costs. You send the money and our teams go and buy the coats. As Marion Wright Edelman, the founder of the Children’s Defense Fund says: “We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.” When you place a warm coat on cold little shoulders, you know that a warm coat makes a big difference. We have given away over 7,000 new coats through the years. Tax deductible donation can be made to Fillmore Volunteer Firefighters Fund, in the memo- coats, and mail to POB 331, or deliver to Taylor, Scoles & Bartels or donated through Go Fund Me at https://www.gofundme.com/warm-coats-for-fillmore039s-kids Laura Bartels, Director |
