Winter warming items, supplies donated for the region’s homeless

The Lake County Department of Job and Family Services and Ohio Means Jobs Lake County partnered with the Sub Zero Mission for a “stuff the bus” event Nov. 23 to collect warming items for the homeless in Lake County.

Individuals were able to stop by and drop off their donations at a designated bus on location. Some of the needed items included adult coats, boots, new socks, hats, gloves, sleeping bags and tents. There was also a Barra de Taco Food truck for people to buy lunch.

“This is the first time we’ve done this event. We’ve been planning this event for about the last month or so,” said Lake County Department of Job and Family Services Director Suzanne Casar. “This was a wonderful opportunity for our agency to serve the public in another capacity — collecting warming items that homeless individuals will need to stay safe throughout the winter.

“Our staff members are committed to serving the public each day through our traditional public assistance programs, so we are grateful to partner with the Sub Zero Mission on a similar undertaking — helping those homeless individuals in need and connecting them to services in our community they might not be aware of,” she added.

The Sub Zero Mission began during the winter of 2009 when high school friends and former Marines Al Raddatz and Del Bethel helped out a couple of homeless veterans by supplying sleeping bags to keep them warm during the cold Northeast Ohio winter. They collected 50 sleeping bags that year.

Since then, volunteers have raised more than $300,000 and gathered countless numbers of warming items and supplies.

Marketing Director James Hido says the event had a fantastic turnout.

“A lot of individuals showed up, including a few people who drove all the way from North Olmsted and Sagamore Hills the night before just to drop off items since we’d set up the bus the evening before the event,” Hido said. “The outreach and total community support was great.”

While Hido and Sub Zero Mission don’t have a total count on the items collected from the Nov. 23 event, he estimates around 500 items were donated.

“We have a 7,500 benchmark for items that we need to obtain before Dec. 1. We probably have around 6,000 items so far with a few days to go,” he said. “We’re hoping to have a clearer idea of what we have after the Thanksgiving holiday passes. But hopefully any that come in through Black Friday, small business Saturday and Sunday, all of those will get us closer to that goal.”

SUBMITTED Workers stand outside of the Lake County Department of Job and Family Services building for the Stuff the Bus event in Painesville.