Students at Springfield’s Cowden Elementary will be a little warmer this winter thanks to a donation by a local church. KSMU’s Michele Skalicky has more.
Volunteers from Seminole Baptist had as many smiles on their faces as the students at Cowden Elementary as they helped the more than 300 preschool through fifth grade kids into brand new coats. There were camo coats, leopard print coats with pink fur trim, coats that were solid blue, pink and purple and coats trimmed with neon colors.
Cherie Norman is Cowden’s principal.
"It means that they will have a warm winter. And a lot of them walk or stand at a bus stop, and that means that they will have a brand new coat, and it's an incredible thing that these people do for us," she said.
Seminole Baptist family pastor, Caleb McClure, said they’ve donated coats before, and as they thought about how to help the school, which is their Partner in Education, they decided this would be a good project to repeat. They also help the school with other needs, including PTA events.
He said the hard work to make the coat donation happen was all worth it.
"It's a lot of stressful work up until the point, but this is like reaping the fruit, and it's just a fulfilling thing, and it's great because there's a lot of negative things going on in this world. To be a source of hope and love for people, that's what it means. That's good," said McClure.
Norman said some kids at Cowden, which is a Title One school, struggle with poverty, so the donations “mean a lot.” According to Norman, the school receives coat vouchers each year, but there are never enough to meet the needs of all the students. The coats came at a good time as temperatures dropped with a cold front that moved in.
