BRADENTON – Florida’s winter may not be a big deal to most of us but for others in the community, winter in Florida requires a lot more layers to stay warm…
“This is a jacket that they could be using right now in addition to carrying them through until the spring,” said Founder of Facing Homelessness, Laura Licoski.
Suncoast non-profit, Turning Points is collecting items for their annual One Warm Coat drive.
“Coats, hats, mittens, gloves, and we can take scarves, we don’t have too many of those,” said the Director of Volunteer Services at Turning Points, Cheryl Hedger.
With colder nights approaching Turning Points Director of Volunteer Services, Cheryl Hedger says a winter coat is vital for those who are out on the streets.
“Also for our children in Manatee County that their parents are unable to afford to be able to give them the kind of coats and hats and mittens that they need,” said Hedger.
Hedger says in past years, the nonprofit has collected up to fifteen-hundred coats, so far the organization has about 900, but they’re running low on other items
“One of the things that we find is that we do not have enough children’s coats, hats, and mittens so we are now putting out a call to the community to donate those items,” said Hedger.
Turning points will take donations for the drive until November 25th, and children’s items until December 4th.
Facing Homelessness Bradenton, Founder, Laura Licoski says the homeless community is growing, with many not being able to make ends meet
“Families that never thought that they would be in this situation right now, a single male or female that have lost their job or possibly even lost their housing, the more that they have delays on evictions and things like that, the more people are going to get into debt were going to see a lot more of a newer breed of homelessness before because of this pandemic,” said Licoski.
Coats and other winter accessories can be dropped off at the Turning Points donation center.
For more information, you can visit their website.
