Source: The Intelligencer – Wheeling Register News
Students can stay warmer at the bus stop, sled longer when the snow falls and better enjoy watching Christmas parades, thanks to the Winter Warmup for Kids.
Students can stay warmer at the bus stop, sled longer when the snow falls and better enjoy watching Christmas parades, thanks to the Winter Warmup for Kids.
A program of the United Mine Workers of America Local 1473, Winter Warmup is providing 300 coats to children in need this year. The coats, along with hats and scarves, are being distributed at eight local schools in Ohio and West Virginia.
Local members on Tuesday presented coats to staff at the Bellaire school, while Ohio County Schools received donations Monday. Others school districts receiving coats this year include Bridgeport, Martins Ferry and Barnesville. Central Elementary in Moundsville also is receiving a donation.
John Miller, recording secretary for Local 1473 and a Mount Olivet resident, said he started the program five years ago after he drove by a school and noticed a young child not wearing a coast despite it being cold outside.
“He didn’t have a coat, but I did have a coat on and I wanted to do something about it,” Miller said.
Since then the UMWA, with help from Boscov’s and donations of money and coats from groups like Trinity Lutheran Church in South Wheeling, Christ Lutheran Church in Mozart, Align HR and UMWA members, have given away 1,300 coats to various elementary schools in the past five years.
Miller said the principals and staff members of each school determine which students are in need of the coats. They give Miller the sizes needed and how many are for boys or girls. Miller then gives that information to Boscov’s, which then compiles the needed coats for pickup by the UMWA.
“It doesn’t matter how many they need,” Miller said of a school. “If need they 50 coats, we get them 50 coats.”
Donnie Samms, UMWA at-large international president and a Uniontown, Pennsylvania, resident, said Miller has the full backing of the UMWA and his local members for the program.
“We’ve always tried to be involved in the community,” Samms said of the union. “This local is the best example of that. It takes a lot of heart and a lot of work.”
Ritchie Elementary School Principal John Jorden said UMWA and Miller do an exceptional job in providing for Ritchie students, and he has been told this year’s contribution to the school’s students may be the biggest donation yet.
“I’ve heard that they’ve outdone themselves,” Jorden said. “They always come through for our kids, and I can’t say enough about what a great effort this is.”
