Coats for Kids: Groups help Chester students
CHESTER » CBS3 Eyewitness News Anchor Ukee Washington and Chester Upland School of the Arts students paid a visit to Chester High School Friday afternoon to cap off the school district’s sixth annual Driving Away the Cold winter coat distribution.
The event, featuring a series of performances from CUSA students in the school auditorium, closed the October distribution of 3,042 winter coats to district elementary students through the Auto Dealers CARing for Kids Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Auto Dealers Association of Greater Philadelphia and Philadelphia Auto Show.
“They’re paying it forward by giving you a brand new winter coat. We want to keep the momentum going, we want all of you to pay it forward as well,” said Washington, serving as master of ceremonies. “You can do that very simply by thanking your neighbors, thanking your teachers; by helping as much as you can,” he said. “You are outstanding young people and when you pay it forward you will become outstanding adults.”
Washington, an inaugural member of the Philadelphia Boys Choir in the 1960s and noted arts proponent, then introduced musical and dance performances by CUSA students before the coat distribution.
“The key point I always like to make is that the foundation can choose to go anywhere in the tri-state area; they chose to come here … and they’ve never stopped coming, they have chosen to respond to our beck and call,” said Claudia Averette, CUSD assistant to the superintendent. “And for that our Chester families are forever, eternally grateful.”
Students at Stetser Elementary in Chester City and Main Street Elementary in Upland Borough received coats last week at their respective schools. With limited space at CUSA, housed in a portion of the former Chester High School at West Ninth and Fulton streets, students receive their coats in a culminating event at the current high school. Averette said she sees the children’s appreciation for the coats when students ask if the drive will take place from the start of the academic year. “When you have a 10-year-old start asking you in September about a coat… when it’s still 90 degrees outside… it matters,” she said.
The CARing for Kids Foundation held the inaugural Driving Away the Cold giveaway in 2008 with 18,000 coats distributed through the five-county Philadelphia area, according to Mary Lynn Alvarino, director of operations for the Auto Dealers Association of Greater Philadelphia. “This year we’ll give away 52,000, which is a new record,” said David Kelleher, president of Glen Mills-based David Dodge and current CARing for Kids Foundation president.
The auto dealers association, made up of 183 dealers in the five-county region, created the CARing for Kids Foundation after the Philadelphia Auto Show moved beyond a publicly-accessible trade show into a profitable event, according to Kelleher. The coat supply for Driving Away the Cold is then funded through auto show proceeds and donations from individual dealers. The associations’ Black Tie Tailgate held during the auto show benefits Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “Last year we gave $600,000 to Children’s Hospital for one night,” said Kelleher.
For 2019, 52,700 coats will be distributed through
225 nonprofit agencies, YMCA’s and school districts, Alvarino said. “We’ve given the Chester Upland School District just under
17,000 coats over the past six years. “We’re found the district to be a manageable size that we can serve every elementary school student,” she said.
Kelleher also distributes coats in the city through his dealership, independent of the foundation and Driving Away the Cold. “On Nov.
1, we’re giving away 1,000 coats… at City Team Ministries (at Seventh and Sproul streets),” he said. “(Former state Sen. Dominic Pileggi) turned me onto City Team. Once I went to City Team that was it. That first year we gave away 180 coats – a little different now,” he said.