Tom and I spent a morning volunteering at Coatland at People in Need of Delaware County in December. The Lewis Center United Methodist Church is an active supporter of People in Need. We collected 5,800 pounds of food in August. In December, the Lewis Center Church is in charge of Coatland.
People in Need started with a Winter Clearing House to help needy people at Christmas. This year they had the 70th Winter Clearing House. They provide food assistance year-round and other kinds of emergency assistance as needed. People sign up in November with their requests for coats, toys, and food assistance for Christmas. In 2024 over 500 families signed up. The Clearing House is so big that it is held at the Delaware County Fairgrounds.
Coatland provides coats for the people who signed up. Starting in November, people at church begin bringing in winter coats. They have to be new and we have an online sign up that tells what sizes are needed. This year, People in Need had 1,500 coat requests and the church responded. By the time the recipients showed up on Sunday, December 15, there were nearly 2,000 coats in Coatland. We like people to have a choice of which coat they would like.
Tom and I spent one morning, the week before the Clearing House, sorting and hanging coats. We cut off the tags (so people can’t return them to the store for a refund) and hung them in the proper area of Coatland. The morning we volunteered, the other volunteers were really glad to see Tom. The only heating in the building is a propane furnace and none of the other volunteers (all women) knew how to turn it on. Tom got it going which made it a lot warmer in the barn.
After we hung the coats, Tom and I helped count them and make sure they were in the right sizing areas. The counting part was easy. Figuring out what size they were was sometimes challenging. Size tags are sometimes at the neckline and sometimes in a pocket. And sizes are not consistent. A child’s large could be sizes 8 – 14, which is quite a spread. We got all the girls’ coats in the proper areas and counted them.
Our leader, Annie Johnston, is a member of the church and has been in charge of Coatland since 2016. She takes a week off work to work in the barn each morning, corralling the volunteers and organizing the coats and various other bits of clothing that people donate. This year Bombas donated over 500 pairs of socks to the Winter Clearing House. I know those were a big hit with the people coming through.
Tom and I enjoyed our morning working in Coatland and plan to do it again next year. We are always impressed at the generosity of our mission-hearted church.