Warm hearts load Project Warmth with coats for needy, homeless

Bonnie Oothoudt is one of those people who routinely drops off a bag or two of donations to Project Warmth.

This year, though, the ads announcing the community-wide coat and blanket drive particularly grabbed her. Seeing the face of child alongside the need to keep warm during the winter months hit her hard.

“My children have never gone without a coat,” Oothoudt said. “It just breaks my heart.”

And that thought alone, of a young child trying to keep warm, is likely why, in her words, “I got a little carried away this year.” Before 10 a.m. Saturday, she pulled up to a Project Warmth drop-off site at Zona Rosa in the northland and left eight coats. Four of them were for young boys and girls.

Residents across the area had similar hearts on Saturday. For six hours, they dropped off coats and jackets, quilts and blankets at 10 locations on both sides of the state line.

In its 33rd year, Project Warmth collects thousands of coats each year that go to those who are homeless or needy. The donated items go to more than 50 organizations.

The Salvation Army sorts and distributes the items throughout the community. Cash donations, which are also collected during Project Warmth, are used to help pay heating and cooling utility costs throughout the year.

Paula Andres bought two new coats last week to drop off Saturday morning. One for a boy, one for a girl. She said she was drawn to the children’s sizes.

“I thought about the younger kids standing at bus stops trying to keep warm,” said Andres who lives in the northland. “I’ve got grandkids.”

Before Andres made her drop off at the northland site, a member of an area ladies club dropped of eight bags. And just after 10 a.m., Pastor John Roeder, of Arley United Methodist Church, pulled up with about a dozen bags of coats for all ages, in all sizes.

The men’s ministry at the church picked the coat and blanket drive as one of their projects this year.

Volunteer Stasha Ludwig, who clocked community service hours for Target where she works, helped unload bag after bag from Roeder’s Subaru Outback. She volunteered for Project Warmth last year, too, and enjoys seeing people like Roeder and the families at his church want to help.

“I feel good that they want to give back just as much as we do,” Ludwig said. “And it’s good to know there are still good people out there.”

The idea of anyone, especially a child, not having a coat is pretty hard to imagine, said Hayden Hayward, 13, of Tonganoxie, Kan., who helped out with Project Warmth for the first time Saturday. He took in donations with a group of volunteers at a lot outside Nebraska Furniture Mart in Kansas City, Kan.

“I think people need help sometimes,” the teen said. “They can’t always get what they need. I think about what would happen if we didn’t have a coat.

“I realize some people don’t,” he said. “And that makes me sad.”

Hayward and a group of young volunteers hurried up to each car, truck or van that pulled up.

One of those was Frank Buchhorn, of Lenexa. He recently lost 130 pounds and had a slew of coats he no longer needed, three brand new ones with the tags still on.

“I think it’s aways good to help,” Buchhorn said. “I’m glad to see somebody get use out of them.”

Donations can be made online at ProjectWarmthKC.com. A postage-paid envelope also will be included in The Kansas City Star on Dec. 13. Contributors may use them to send in donations. The envelopes alone have raised more than $4 million.

This story was originally published November 7, 2015 at 4:26 PM with the headline "Warm hearts load Project Warmth with coats for needy, homeless."