TOLEDO – Changes in weather make for changes in wardrobe, but quickly sprouting kids can easily outgrow clothes from the previous year. As it gets colder, there is a pipeline of organizations at the forefront of providing warm clothes for kids.
“We held our distribution in November, when 904 children passed through our doors, and it [their supply] wasn’t enough,” said Susan Perry, executive director of Susie’s Coats for Kids, about the need in the Toledo area.
Rising to meet the need, Susie’s Coats teamed up with Holland, Ohio company Designetics, which specializes in fluid applicators for manufacturing companies, and their humanitarian arm, Care for Kids, a nonprofit founded in 2020.
Sydney Williams, president of Designetics, said their first year getting Care for Kids up and running included a Trunk or Treat in the fall, but by the next year, “they [the kids] didn’t need candy, they needed coats.”
Perry became aware of northwest Ohio’s need to clothe children two decades ago and has worked doggedly to provide more resources to children.
The nonprofit’s main goal is to make sure kids have well-fitting and presentable coats without holes or tears when winter rolls around. Susie’s Coats’ primary storehouse is based in Millbury, but the nonprofit has 35 ‘coat closets’ within a 45-mile radius of Toledo, most of them based in elementary schools.
Perry said her nonprofit has experienced exponential growth since it began, and just last year merged with Hannah’s Socks, who shares a similar goal. Between the two nonprofits, Perry said 224,102 items of warm apparel, including coats, gloves and socks, have been distributed this year.
One distribution site was at Escuela SMART Academy in south Toledo, where Susie’s Coats, Designetics and the Toledo Zoo on Monday handed out winter-wear, along with other holiday items, during the Escuela holiday party.
“We know there’s a big need in our community, and we know it’s cold,” said Martha Ohashi, school nurse for Escuela SMART Academy.
Ohashi reminds teachers to be aware of kids consistently coming to school without warm clothes. “When the child comes into my office [after being recommended by a teacher], I make a call to their home, and I try to connect them to resources,” she said.
Linda Ruiz-Bringman, assistant superintendent of student, family and community engagement for Toledo Public Schools (TPS), is focused on meeting the needs of children throughout TPS, so that the students can perform well in school.
“The need is great within the Toledo area,” Ruiz-Bringman said. Because of this need, all TPS nurses have essential items on hand, ranging from clothes to hygiene items. “We are always engaging with families. Families will reach out to us and our department.”
The Community Engagement Department deals with a host of different issues, including students lacking food, access to internet, clothing or even basic access to utilities in their homes.
Information from schools and classrooms largely impact how aid gets to children. Perry’s organization has its hands full partnering with nonprofits and businesses to provide items, but relies largely on TPS’s reporting to decide where to distribute items and setup closets.
Natasha Allen, principal of Escuela SMART Academy, is well aware of the needs of her students, and estimated about 180 of her 285 students were in need of coats this year. Over the past four years at the academy, she said there is always a need for coats, and that each year at least half of the students need them.
“We’re just grateful to have them … so our kids can do well,” the principal said, and firmly added that “the students in need of coats are getting coats.”
As students at Escuela filed into the holiday party, grabbed holiday items and colorful socks, nurse Ohashi checked the names of students who needed coats with the size of coat that would fit them. Volunteers from the Perrysburg Knights of Columbus sorted through boxes of warm clothing items, and then handed them to students, who received them with smiles.
“We won’t stop,” Allen said resolutely, adding that the school would find other ways to support their kids if the need increases or the support dries up.
“We support the whole child, and that includes their family,” she said.
