After noticing students coming to school in late October about a decade ago wearing flip-flops and socks, Jason Altenbern, the community relations coordinator for Indian Prairie School District 204, began collecting coats and boots, many donated through the Rotary Club of Naperville-Noon — even storing them for a time in his trunk and garage.
Now about 10 years later the collection has become an annual undertaking that has grown into a large collaborative effort with 27 of the 33 District 204 schools participating.
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Organized by the Indian Prairie Parents’ Council, last year over 1,500 coats (including 500 donated by Calvary Church) were distributed to needy families in the district, according to Tami Reid, Indian Prairie Parents’ Council vice president and the chair of the winter coat and boot drive committee.
At the end of October each participating school collects gently used coats and boots that are gathered and sorted by volunteers and school groups. For the last two years, the coats and boots have been stacked in an empty classroom at Kendall Elementary School.
Before parent-teacher conferences, from 15 to 20 District 204 social workers choose items for students and their families who are in need of winter outerwear. During parent-teacher conferences in early November, the families are given the opportunity to choose items for themselves and their children.
Any remaining items are dispersed among local veterans groups, homeless shelters, battered women’s shelters, organizations for special needs adults and nearby school districts, Reid said.
After that, she said, a representative from Merlin, the auto care company, transports any remaining items to shelters in the city of Chicago.
“Eventually, everything finds their way into a home,” Reid said.
This year for the first time, donations were used to purchase approximately 300 sets of new boots for students. Donations from Wells Fargo and the Neuqua Valley Student Council were used to purchase the boots, she added.
“Boots can be tricky. Coats can be washed and reused; sometimes boots, especially if they were heavily used, are harder to pass along to another child,” Reid said.
Over the summer, a survey was sent to District 204 social workers to determine the anticipated need for boots, Reid said. Utilizing a large spreadsheet of boot sizes that range from size 5 toddler to 12 adult separated by gender, Reid said she was able to purchase 300 pairs of new boots online.
She said the boots being distributed are expected to only meet part of the anticipated need for the footwear.
Each year, she said, social workers are encouraged to look through the donations accumulating at their home schools.
“If there is something in the bin that would fit an immediate need, they are encouraged to take the item,” Reid added.
Reid has chaired the event for the past three years.
“I love this project because people get so excited to help out,” she said. “If people have extra coats and boots they would much rather see it go to someone who has a need for it.”
Cathy Janek is a freelance writer for The Beacon-News.