Local Organizations Provide Winter Coats to Those in Need
The Osborn, Rye Rotary Club, Rye Lions Club and others have
partnered for a winter coat drive this month.
Rye Patch, January 3, 2011
By Michael Iachetta

As winter begins, hundreds of people in the area are in need of coats to protect them from the cold. The Osborn Retirement Community, Rye City Lions Club and Rye Rotary Club are partnering again this year to ensure these people have the most basic of necessities.

Beginning this Tuesday and every Tuesday throughout this month, coats can be dropped off at Miriam's Attic—The Osborn's resale shop—between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. This year, the need for winter coats is greater than ever, according to Susan Olson, fund development coordinator at The Osborn.

Olson said 700 coats were donated during last year's coat drive. She said the effort began with the collaboration of several local organizations, including Miriam's Attic, Christ's Church, the Open Arms Men's Shelter in White Plains and Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry.

"I am a member of Christ's Church and we have a program called Shelter Saturdays in which we provide housing for homeless men from Open Arms Men's Shelter one Saturday a month," she said. "Several churches in the area also share this responsibility by providing space Saturday nights to house the homeless men."

The shelter brings cots to the church, she said, and church volunteers set up the cots, and make the beds with sheets, blankets and pillows that parishioners have donated. They also provide snacks for the men for the night and set up coffee for them for the next morning. The homeless men are then picked up early Sunday morning by Open Arms drivers and driven back to the Open Arms Shelter in White Plains for breakfast.

"The Shelter also provides job evaluations and training, so one year we collected suits so the men going on interviews would have a suit to wear," Olson said.

"I have been involved in the program for many years so when we opened Miriam's Attic at The Osborn, I thought it would be a nice idea to collect winter coats for the shelter as well," she said.

Grace Church Community Center runs the shelter, as well as a shelter for women in White Plains.

Olson checked with John Rubin, director of the Grace Church Community Center, once the cold weather set in to find out if the coats were still needed. They were—so much so that the groups involved expanded the coat drive to include men's and women's winter coats.

Several Osborn employees then came up with the idea to expand the program to actively involve community organizations they belong to, such as the Rye Rotary and the Rye City Lions Clubs, both of which are community service organizations that raise money to benefit those in need.

Both organizations expressed an interest in getting involved. As word spread, Olson received a call from Caitlin Krueger, Senior Assistant Director of PACT, Mercy College's mentoring program, about donating coats that the students had collected in their holiday coat drive. So, more coats were on their way.

And the coat program really began taking off.

"Last year, through the combined efforts of The Osborn, Rye City Lions Club, and the Rye Rotary, we collected over 700 coats," Olson said. "We hope to collect even more this year. I have already received several calls from people asking if we are going to collect coats again this year."

"With the recent blizzard, it is a good time for people to look through their closets and consider donating any coats that are not being used," she said. There are many people in Westchester County–at least 1,300 are registered with the Westchester Department of Social Services alone—who would appreciate a warm winter coat."

For more information: The Osborn. 101 Theall Road; 914-925-8372; Susan Olson, solson@theosborn.org?.