WARMING UP FOR WINTER

When Wilkinsburg School District teacher Diane Meszaros received an email a few years ago asking if there was a need among her students for free, warm winter coats through Operation Warm, she was thrilled.

“I wrote ‘that would be fabulous’,” the Kelly Primary School kindergarten teacher said.

The email was from John Gardell, a lieutenant in the Pittsburgh Fire Bureau and vice president of Local 1 of the International Association of Fire Fighters in Pittsburgh, which has partnered with Operation Warm since 2012 to help raise funds for children in the Pittsburgh area.

The nonprofit Operation Warm, headquartered in Chadds Ford, Delaware County, provides new winter coats to children in need.

Since 1998, Operation Warm has distributed nearly 3 million new coats, working with community organizations, volunteers, companies and families across North America. The partner group chooses which disadvantaged children will receive the coats in their area.

For every dollar donated to, or raised by, a partnering organization such as Local No. 1, 96 cents goes to providing the coats. About four cents of each dollar goes to pay administrative costs of Operation Warm, the nonprofit said.

“We keep our overhead very low so we can serve more kids,” said Laura Wisneski, associate director of community programs for Operation Warm.

Mrs. Meszaros said that in its first year, all kindergarten students at Kelly Primary School received coats.

Last year, all kindergarten and firstand second-grade students in the school, or 148 youngsters, received coats. About