Holiday donations sought to help those most in need

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SALT LAKE CITY — Donations are now being sought to help provide for children during the holiday season.

At various times in the next few months, the Utah Knights of Columbus will distribute winter coats, hats and gloves to children in need and clients of Catholic Community Services through the Coats for Kids program.

The Coats for Kids program was developed by the Knights of Columbus of the United States, which encouraged local councils across North America to provide new winter coats for children.

According to the National Knights of Columbus website, the initiative began as an effort to help families with children living in colder climates who were severely impacted by the downturn in the economy.

“The goal of the Coats for Kids program is to ensure that no child in North America goes without a coat during the winter season. Through the dedication of councils across the United States and Canada, hundreds of thousands of new winter coats have been distributed to children since program inception,” states the Knights of Columbus web page.

According to Knights of Columbus statistics, through the Coats for Kids program, 1,625 local councils distributed 79,320 coats to children in need throughout the United States and Canada.

Since the program began in 2009, more than 306,000 coats have been distributed.

In Utah each year, the Knights of Columbus distribute about 900 coats at various sites.

This year the distributions will begin on Nov. 3 in Ogden. The Salt Lake Valley distribution will be on Dec. 1, and on Dec. 8 the Utah County distribution will be at the “Shop With a Cop” event in Spanish Fork.

The community can donate to the Coats for Kids program either through their local parish or through the Knights of Columbus web page, www.utahknights.org.

Another annual holiday program to help those in need is Catholic Community Services of Utah’s Gift of the Drummer, which has been serving about 1,250 children per year since its beginnings in 2000.

Although the holiday season isn’t yet officially underway, CCS is making preparations to create a merry Christmas for children in need.

The Gift of the Drummer program is divided into two parts: one for those children whose families are registered with the CCS St. Vincent de Paul Basic Needs Services, the other for refugee children who have come to Utah with their families, and also the unaccompanied minor refugee children who are in foster care.

The Gift of the Drummer program provides children aged newborn to 17 with clothing items such as shoes, socks, dresses, pants and coats. Gift recipients are all at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty guideline level and are not enrolled in another Christmas program.

To help a recipient, e-mail drummer@ccsutah.org to be assigned a homeless, low-income or refugee child or adult to help this holiday season. The assignment will include information such as age, sex and clothing size of the recipient.

In addition, Catholic Community Services of Northern Utah is collecting items for its Thanksgiving food baskets. For information, visit https://ccsnorthernutah.org/.