Coat Drive kicks off

So it begins - our 1st ever coat drive. This is a big deal for us. Something new for our practice. We collected 29 coats on the first day!! Not bad at all. It's really amazing to see how energized people get for a good cause. We began the outreach with just friends and family, reaching an enormous amount of people. The exciting part is seeing our patients come through the door with their old coats. Awesome!! We even get a few people every day who come in off the street to make their donation.

We'll be posting updates every week, along with photos.

Keep up the good work.

Away They Go...

Who would have ever thought that we'd fill up a whole truck? It's crazy. Darren and the driver loaded up the box truck yesterday. ur coats were the only thing he was picking up, and we filled the entire back of the truck. Amazing. There were about 40 bags. Honestly, I lost count.

Thanks again to everyone involved.

Get warmed up for next year...it's gonna be much bigger!

The Final Count...

This is it. The final count. Drumroll please....575 coats. Plus 13 handmade mittens.

Purple Heart is coming tomorrow for a pick-up. I'll post some pics of us loading 40 garbage bags of coats.

Thanks alot everyone!!

No Room in the Stock Room...

Well, we ran out of room in Terri's office. And stacking all the coats in the waiting area was starting to become too much. So we moved all the coats to the storage room. As you can see, it's packed to the ceiling! Sarah will just have to climb over some bags to get to her whitening supplies. Oh well, small sacrifice. There are at least 40 bags in there. The room is actually pretty small, so it's really filled all the way.

I'm doing a final count today...stay tuned.

Handmade Mittens...

We got a special delivery from Bernice in Moorestown. She hand-delivered a bag of mittens. I tried a pair on & they're awesome. Bernice made them herself, just for us.
That's doing something special. Thanks, Bernice.
We've met a handful of people like her during our coat drive. And every one of them have done something above and beyond what we've asked them to do.
Happy New Year!

The Blizzard of "09...

While everyone spent the weekend digging themselves out of the snow, the storm proved to be somewhat of a blessing for our donation efforts. Darren was snowed-in at his mother-in-law's house...on purpose. Quietly and without even asking, Grand Mom Janet was collecting coats through her friends at work. Darren ended up leaving her house with a few bags of coats, about 25 in all. Nice job.
The blizzard was a reminder to everyone that we should all have a decent coat to stay warm. When it snows like that and the weather is nasty, sometimes you just have to be outside for long periods of time. A warm coat is essential.

The Last Full Week...

Thank goodness Terri is off this week. Not because we like it when she's off, but because her office is stacked 3 feet high with garbage bags filled with coats. Seriously, you can't even move in her office. Don't worry, Terri, we'll clear it out by the time you come back from vacation...maybe.

This week, we'll be calling our friends and family one more time to schedule pick-ups. It should be interesting as we try to get about 90 more coats. 500 coats, no problem...we hope.

Keep on giving.

Christmas Coats...

This past week has seen a flurry of donations. People from all over the place have been calling the office looking to drop off their stuff.
I went through the huge pile over the weekend and started to make neat piles of coats. Forget about it! Every time I try to move some coats, the whole pile comes crashing down all over the waiting room. I guess that's a nice problem to have, though.
Joyce has been keeping track as best as she can.
Our thermometer is past 400 right now!
Check out the pic.

Santa Might Make a Donation...

The word is that Santa might be making an early Christmas stop at Stevie D's house on Saturday night. We already sent a message through his elves to all the families who will be there to bring your old coats. Who knows, maybe Santa will have an extra special surprise for you when you make a donation.
Have fun everyone.
I'll post pics next week.

Rollin' Right Along

Response to the new Community Trend ad has been tremendous. Not sure if this was intentional or not, but...our ad ran right next to an article about "Operation Blessing." This is the very organization that we're donating to. Pretty cool. So, hopefully, readers will learn all about the organization, then read our ad and find we're a perfect place to drop off the coats.

The count right now is at 289. Whoa!!

Almost Halfway There...

One of our patients came in this morning with another plastic bag stuffed with coats. That brings us to 234 ! Gotta go fill in the thermometer on our box up to the 250 mark...well, almost.

Volunteers of America...

Our new ad came out today in The Community Trend. And the article right next to our on the front page is all about Volunteers of America - Operation Blessing. Coincidence? I think not. We've made it that much easier to donate to Operation Blessing. Just bring your coats here and we'll send them out when our drive is finished.
Operation Blessing is also collecting donations of other items, including toiletries, toys, shoes, and blankets. You can also adopt a family for the holidays. Pretty awesome.
Thanks for the support.

Thank You, Jackie...

The bags keep rolling in. Got a call the other day from a woman named Jackie, from right here in Moorestown. She got one of our emails from a friend of a friend. So she went through her closets, of course, but then she took it a step further. Jackie forwarded the email to her coworkers and set up a collection at her next office meeting. When we picked the coats up at her house last week, she had her whole car filled...30 coats.
That's all it takes. Just a little extra effort and the numbers keep growing.
Thanks again, Jackie. Looking forward to more coats next year.

Partnering with "Children of America"

My gorgeous Sister-in-law, Melissa, just gave us some awesome news: Her local Children of America centers are running coat drives...and all the coats are coming here. Well, they're all actually going to Volunteers of America's "Operation Blessing", but the coats are getting donated through us.

Melissa is the Director of COA's Sicklerville location, so she pretty much calls the shots when it comes to, well, everything. Thanks, Missy. Be sure to post comments on your progress and post some pics, too.

If anyone is looking for a quality child care center, check out COA. http://www.childrenofamerica.com/

They're opening up a center in Vorhess in early 2010.

First Count - strong start

We went through all the bags from the holiday weekend and did our first count. 116 coats and jackets!!!
It was pretty funny when patients couldn't find seats in the waiting room because of the coats all over the place.
Emily made a cool thermometer to track our progress (laminated, of course). Pics coming soon.
Look out for our new ad in The Trend featuring Bundle Me Up 2009 info.

The Griswolds donate...big time

I knew my family would come through when asked to donate coats. I've seen their basements, those cavernous Philly rowhouse cellars, filled to the ceiling joists with unwanted stuff. The Thanksgiving holiday was a perfect opportunity to clear out some space.
My mother hosts Thanksgiving every year and the number of diners varies, usually between 20 and 30 people. This year we had 27 adults, plus 3, no 4, no 5, wait, 6 kids...plus Jack Mooney. It was the perfect opportunity to get some more coats. We sent an email and made a few calls.
The Romeo's won the day, schlepping two huge contractor bags filled with 30 coats! Some of them were pretty nice, too. The Negro's gave about 10 coats...although I know if we spent some time in their basement we could get 30 more. The Cappelli's scrounged up about 5 and Nikki and Nikki' Badessa also had about 5 or so.
Nice job, everyone. Go Griswolds!