On Tuesday, Oct. 13, students at Scotia-Glenville High School opened their closets in support of the City Mission of Schenectady.
If there’s one thing students do, it’s grow out of coats, said Bruce Kohout, coordinator of the Service Learning Program. As a part of the school’s annual Spirit Week, the students donated old winter coats to the City Mission of Schenectady. Each class was awarded points for the number of coats that were brought in for the cause. Those points have yet to be tallied. Although students still don’t know which class won by bring in the most coats, the total number of coats collected for charity is 720, an almost 1-to-1 ratio of enrolled students and collected outerwear.
`We are so excited,` said Liz Chamberlain, director of development at City Mission of Schenectady. `We are very grateful for the generosity. It’s exciting to see young people help give to people in need in the community.`
Chamberlain said the City Mission of Schenectady will have a coat giveaway in early November and will continue to give out coats to those in need throughout the season. The City Mission of Schenectady also serves food six nights a week and holds free medical clinics for needy individuals.
The Scotia-Glenville High School also works with the City Mission of Schenectady through their GIVE program, which encourages students to participate in community service. The program was awarded the 2009 Youth Leadership award by the City Mission last May.
`Their GIVE program has been volunteering in different capacities for a number of years. Two years ago they did a coat drive and this year’s goal was 1,000 coats,` said Chamberlain.
The last coat drive brought in more than 800 coats, and students were asked to top the amount this year.
Although numbers fell short of that goal, the overwhelming effort of the students and staff will still have a positive impact on the City Mission.
`We always set goals, but 720 coats is a lot of coats,` said Kohout.
`I brought in about five or six from home,` said senior Nathan Jerard. `We’ve known about it [the coat drive] since September, but today was the day to bring in the coats as a part of spirit week.`
Students helped volunteers bag and move the coats onto the City Mission of Schenectady’s truck after classes were over for the day.
`It’s really good to know that we are helping people in need,` said Jerard.
Students brought in the coats to the small gym at the high school campus and placed them in the four corners depending on grade. Student donations were then combined with staff donations to make the final number. Both school sports teams and students helped to load the donated coats onto a truck provided by the mission.“