Thirty-three Chestermere families in need of new winter clothing were helped by the city’s annual Jacket Racket.
“I feel that it was a success,” said Community Resource Worker Paulette Tippe.
The winter clothing was distributed by appointment Oct. 25 and 26 and drop-in on Oct. 27 and 28.
“We helped a lot of families that were in need of jackets,” she said.
Through the program, 58 adult winter jackets and 77 children’s coats were distributed.
In addition to jackets, families could get new snow pants, hoodies, scarfs, toques, gloves and mittens. There were even a few winter boots donated.
Tippe said that most people were outfitted from head to toe with new winter wear.
“They were welcome to anything we had,” she said.
Despite the economic downturn, the need for the program was about the same this year as last year. The same number of adult jackets were given out.
There was increase in the number of children’s jackets. Last year only 46 were handed out.
“We were fairly even to last year,” said Tippe.
The city didn’t track how many donations came in but there was a significant increase in donations this year.
“I was overwhelmed,” said Tippe, “it was good.”
Donation bins were delivered to all the schools in Chestermere, the library, recreation centre and city hall.
“We, many times over, were contacted to say ‘your bin is full come pick it up’,” said Tippe.
“The community was so great with the donations,” she said.
Donations that weren’t handed out in Chestermere have been given to the The Langdon Community Church (LCC) annual Winter Outerwear Exchange.
“On our last day we connected with them and they came to pick up the extra donations,” said Tippe.
With the increase in donations, there was significantly more left to be donated to the LCC.
“We had almost 30 bags full that we donated to them,” said Tippe.
With this year’s Jacket Racket over Tippe will be reviewing how it went so she can improve the program for next year.
“I believe there might be a few changes,” she said.
Any families that are still in need of winter clothes can contact Krystal Wawrzyniak at (403) 401-4531 with the Winter Outerwear Exchange.
