Thanks to the continued sponsorship by Guardian Self Storage and the help of over 75 other groups, organizations and businesses, the Dutchess Outreach Coat Drive collected a mountain of winter coats.

• The Culinary Institute of America students of Eta Sigma Delta held “Coats for Coffee”.
• Rhinebeck Savings Bank teaming with Town and Country Cleaners collected over 250 coats and cleaned the dirty ones.
• Schools from the Arlington Central School district and Wappingers Central School district set up coat collection sites.
• This year Burlington Coat Factory, participating in the national One Warm Coat campaign, donated all their collected coats to the Dutchess Outreach Coat Drive.

Four coat Giveaways were held in Hyde Park (by the mission group at Hyde Park United Methodist Church), in Beacon (by volunteers at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church), in Millerton at the Northeast Community Center and at the Family Partnership Center in Poughkeepsie providing winter coats to families in need in the area. Aggregating, sorting and distributing some 5000 coats would have been impossible without the help of over 70 volunteers.

Our thanks to the following groups:

• Students from Marist College including members of the Rugby team;
• Students from Vassar College including volunteers from Operation Food Donation;
• Volunteers from IBM;
• Sisters from Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority;
• The ladies from the Children’s Clothes Closet;
• Volunteers from REHAB Programs;
• Helpers from the Living Room;
• Many other individual volunteers.

The only way such a project was possible was through the generosity and energy of all the volunteers. Thank you to everyone for helping make this a success.