Groups pitching in for coat drive

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Sure, summer saw a heat spell to melt metal but winter will be here soon, as will the need for a warm coat.

Coats for Kids will once more ask the community to contribute outgrown coats for the less fortunate.

The nonprofit organization will have donation boxes inside all 39 Las Vegas Albertsons stores starting today. The collection will continue through Oct. 22.

Any coat left in the box will be picked up and delivered to Al Phillips the Cleaner, whose general manager Steve Mailloux will clean them at no charge. The coats then will be distributed by the Salvation Army.

Organizer Harriet Bernard said although the effort is named Coats For Kids, adult coats also will be gladly accepted.

It takes more than one person to make all this happen, and this year, the effort will include women from three Summerlin-area Red Hat Society clubs who have stepped up to the plate. They will go to the different Albertsons stores, collect the coats and deliver them to Al Phillips for cleaning.

The Red Hat Society is not a service organization. Usually, the group's get-togethers include tours of museums, visiting places of interest or just meeting for lunch.

Kitty Eklund of the Dancing Divas said her 18-member Red Hat Society group is so named because members regularly take hula, ballroom and line dancing classes at the West Flamingo Senior Center, 6255 W. Flamingo Road. She has offered her time to collect the coats from the grocery stores and get them to the cleaners.

"As soon as I was approached, I put out the word to the others," Eklund said. "It seemed like a good thing to do."

Anita Burchard of the Royal Red Divas also is volunteering.

"I work full time but this seemed like something I could do to help others," she said. "I'll only need to do it once or twice a week, and I can fit it around my schedule."

The Royal Red Divas also helped a charity last year, with members bringing toys to the group's Christmas party, which were donated to Safe Nest.

In the Summerlin area, Celestine Green of the Silver Swans Red Hat Society will be helping out. Over the years, this resident of The Gardens has solicited donations for cancer research, helped coordinate a firemen's and policemen's appreciation day and participated in canned food drives. Her commitment to helping others stems from her early days in Chicago.

"When I was a child, my family was in a position where we got our clothing from Catholic Charities," she said. "There were eight of us children, plus my mother and father. So when I can, I like to give somebody else a chance, wherever I see a need."