This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
10/11/2022 03:30 PMIn partnership with Tri-Town Youth Services (TTYS), the Deep River Republican Town Committee (RTC) will be holding a Winter Clothing Drive on Saturday, Oct. 29 for families in the tri-town region in need of clothing for the low-temperature time of the year.
The drive, which is to be held on the Marvin Field green opposite the Deep River Congregational Church, 1 Church Street, Deep River, will help to support area families with school children from kindergarten to eighth grade. Organizers will accept gently used warm outerwear including coats, boots, hats, and mittens, among other pieces of clothing suitable for the colder months.
The event’s mission is to help community members whose personal finances have been stretched thin due to high rates of inflation, and an expected rise in fuel costs during the approaching winter, according to Katheryn Russell, the Vice-Chair of the RTC. Seeing rising costs for food, fuel, and other necessities affecting regional families, the group settled on the idea of a clothing drive to especially assist households with very young children, and chose to work with TTYS in organizing the drive.
“We’re not an overly affluent community. Some of the RTC members were talking amongst themselves about how everything’s going on [with regards to] fuel, cost of food, inflation,” said Russell. “We moved to ‘Gosh, I wonder how it’s affecting some of the families in Deep River.’ And so we thought, ‘What can we do to help local families?”
TTYS’s work with tri-town region children made the partnership a between the social services agency and the RTC the right one for this drive, according to Russell, as the former noted that there we 60 families in Deep River, Chester and Essex, who are in need of support in the face of anticipated budget gaps this winter, which can particularly affect their children. While many are looking to leave behind the days of the coronavirus pandemic , the effects and their aftermath is still felt by members of the community, and was another reason for the drive’s organization.
“A lot of people of people are still coming out of COVID. We’re not doing all the masking and the other stuff, but there still is an economic effect to COVID,” said Russell. “This not government money [donated], this is local people’s abundance and the generosity of their hearts just to help somebody who’s quietly struggling, and it may not even be apparent.”
The collection of clothing for struggling families in the tri-town region is one of part of the broader Backpack Program at TTYS, which also helps to gather and distribute food and other needs through the area. Focusing on clothing with this specific event, donating outerwear is encouraged to be brought to Marvin Field the day of the drive, and will be distributed by TTYS to those families and children in need of warm clothing as the temperature drops. Russell said that community members who do not have clothing to donate but still wish to contribute can give gift cards and cash contributions to organizers, which will be used to TTYS to purchase additional clothing.
Organizers from TTYS have worked with social workers from John Winthrop Middle School all three elementary schools in the Region 4 school district, to identify families and children in need of warm outerwear, and will be invited to the agency’s building to select clothing of their choosing following the conclusion of the drive.
The 60 families identified by TTYS in need of clothing are being prioritized in the event, and remaining clothing received at the drive will be distributed by TTYS during the first week of November, according to Abramson. Counselors and social workers at Reg. 4 schools will also continue to identify other families in the area of who are in need of clothing and other needs as well, accoding to Allison Abramson of TTYS. If a surplus of donated items is left over the event and the selection by the identified families, TTYS will ensure that other families in need as identified by Reg. 4 will be able to pick them up.
The clothing drive will run Saturday, Oct. 29 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Marvin Field, opposite the Congregational Church, 1 Church Street, Deep River. A fun atmosphere will be provided with music, and fall-flavored food including apple cider, doughnuts, and candy in celebration of Halloween.