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Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

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Groups driven to keep children warm

Police Activities League, local dealership team on coat drive

By , Columbian environment and transportation reporter
Published:
3 Photos
Vancouver Police Department Officer Benny Romiti helps Leonardo Gomez, 9, try on a new coat Monday evening at Washington Elementary School in Vancouver. The Vancouver Police Activities League, along with McCord&#039;s Vancouver Toyota-Scion, organized the coat drive.
Vancouver Police Department Officer Benny Romiti helps Leonardo Gomez, 9, try on a new coat Monday evening at Washington Elementary School in Vancouver. The Vancouver Police Activities League, along with McCord's Vancouver Toyota-Scion, organized the coat drive. (Natalie Behring/The Columbian) Photo Gallery

Nine-year-old Tony Diaz knew he’d found a stylin’ coat, and proudly flaunted his new black-and-dark-gray pinstriped threads in the Washington Elementary School auditorium.

“This is an exclusive coat,” the Washington Elementary student said Monday evening.

It’s hard to find coats with the thumb holes in the sleeve lining, he said, making it that much cooler. And practical.

“It’s easier to throw snow,” he said.

The Police Activities League of Vancouver, a nonprofit that works with law enforcement to organize learning and recreational programs for local children, teamed with McCord’s Vancouver Toyota-Scion to supply winter coats to children at the school, and league members and police officers were there Monday night to help pair kids with new coats. Dozens of families at the school signed up for the coat drive.

Phillip Cianni — the general manager at the dealership, a league member and a reserve police officer in Washougal — said car dealers offer seasonal deals all the time, but he wondered if there was a way to do more.

“Why not associate or attach some sort of program to go along with it?” he said. “I thought, you know what? Let’s do something to give back, where we can have a donation or coat drive and give back to the community.”

Coat donors got $500 off a new Toyota.

The Police Activities League often works with schools with needier student populations, through Vancouver Public Schools’ Family-Community Resource Centers. The league contacted Washington Elementary’s Elizabeth Owen, the school’s family-community resource coordinator.

“We try to reduce the barriers for families at the school so teachers can spend their time teaching, and I help families with basic needs, with family engagement or student engagement,” she said.

According to the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 88 percent of students at Washington Elementary were receiving free or reduced-price meals as of May 2014, compared to about 53 percent districtwide.

Owen and her counterparts at other schools help connect students and families with help for things from housing and health care to making sure kids have winter clothes and good shoes for P.E.

“This time of year, we just had the kind of big weather snap,” she said. “So things like gloves and hats and coats, and just making sure the kids coming to school are prepared for it.”

Judy Joachim came with her son, 8-year-old Dakoda, and daughter, 7-year-old Cheyenne.

“I think this is really awesome that they do this for families and for kids. It helps out a lot,” she said. “Especially right now, the weather’s cold, huh?” she added, looking at her boy in his new camouflage coat with blaze-orange trim.

“(Camo’s) all he ever wears,” she said.

Jennifer Hines’ son, 10-year-old Bailey, found a too-big green sweatshirt he wouldn’t be persuaded to put back.

They ran out of girls’ jackets before Hines’ daughter, Savannah, 7, could pick one out, but the organizers said they’d track one down.

“It’s nice, especially since the kids walk back and forth to school,” Hines said.

Earlier that day, Police Activities League members handed out Thanksgiving food baskets at Fruit Valley Community Learning Center.

Chris Balmes and Lisa Balmes with Chris Balmes Properties LLC and Jennifer Venable with John L. Scott Real Estate helped supply the 28 baskets handed out at Fruit Valley, and Police Activities League Executive Director Jenny Thompson said there’s about 50 more to distribute to families who couldn’t make it Monday.

Almost 90 percent of Fruit Valley students qualified for free or reduced-price meals in 2014.

Cianni said he had been hoping to gather more than the 76 coats that came in.

Still, he said, it’s the first year they’ve done it.

“If we can provide 76 youths with a new coat heading into the fall and winter, I think it’s a victory,” Cianni said.

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Columbian environment and transportation reporter