Coats 4 Kids drive deemed big success

SANDPOINT — The community rallied around Coats 4 Kids this year with a grand total of 1,519 winter items collected.

"My heart is always really overwhelmed by the generosity in the community," said Karen Battenschlag of Tomlinson Sotheby's and local Coats 4 Kids coordinator.

Along with the many winter items donated, the local Coats 4 Kids drive received some notable monetary donations this year to help keep area families warm.

Addie Brewington, a 7-year-old Kootenai Elementary student, challenged her classmates to raise as much money as they could. Addie promised to match whatever was raised. Matching the $200 took some help from her family, but Addie proudly handed Battenschlag a total of $404 on Oct. 27. Kootenai students and staff collected several bags of coats to donate as well. Addie was rewarded by Battenschlag on a shopping trip to purchase new coats with the money.

Encoder employees were challenged as well, with the promise of an employer match and a pizza party. The approximately 150 employees donated $600 for a total of $1,200 with the employer match. They also gathered 64 coats and other winter items to donate.

"Encoder challenging their employees was just awesome, and the Kootenai school and Brewington family were just totally awesome to get everybody so excited," Battenschlag said, adding that all of the community partners were "awesome."

An anonymous donor donated $1,000, and along with several smaller donations from community members, the total collected this year was $2,844. The money helped purchase 130 new coats, 28 new pairs of snow boots, 42 pairs of gloves and mittens, and 11 winter hats.

Thorne Research employees donated 60 "beautiful" hand-knitted scarves and 60 hand-knitted hats for boys and girls, Battenschlag said.  

And while the quality of the coats donated is "great" every year, Battenschlag said they were exceptional this year.

The grand total of 1,519 items included 1,011 coats, 231 winter hats, 77 pairs of winter gloves and mittens, 104 winter scarves, 57 pairs of winter snow boots, and 39 pairs of snow pants.

"I think the partnerships that we've been able to create, all the way to Spokane with the KXLY News group and their Coats 4 Kids, and all of Kootenai County and all of Bonner County, it just warms my heart that North Idaho and the Northwest region here cares about their people," Battenschlag said.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.