Tulsa Students Donate Nearly 900 Coats To Trav's Coats For Kids

With cold weather on the way, we need your help with Trav's Coats for Kids.

Some Tulsa students stepped up in a big way Wednesday, and it's really needed right now.

One by one, students at Bishop Kelley counted the number of coats donated.

"There are people in our community that go without every single day, and we really are so blessed," said Bishop Kelley student Max Sanders.

The students donated the coats to Trav's Coats for Kids.

11/23/2012 Related Story: Donate To Trav's Coats For Kids At Any Yale Cleaners

Yale Cleaners will clean them and Catholic Charities will distribute the coats to people who really need them through the Christmas season and on into the middle of January.

Students said it's meaningful to them to be able to make a difference.

"Anything we can do to lessen their burden, is something we're just happy to do," said Sanders.

Those coats are really needed.

Because of our unseasonably warm start to December, cold weather hasn't been on everyone's minds, which means donations of coats are down a whopping 40 percent.

"It's a scary thought. Especially these Oklahoma winters; they hit all at once, and they're not kind of cold, they're really cold," said distribution center coordinator Becky Wisdom.

Each year, 13,000 to 15,000 coats are given out through Trav's Coats for Kids.

At this point, they're nowhere near where they were this time, last year.

"Usually, we have a supply in the back warehouse waiting, as we deplete the supply here in the clothing center, and it's just not happening this year," Wisdom said.

The students at Bishop Kelley donated 899 coats total. That means 899 people won't have to worry about how to stay warm this winter.

Catholic Charities is asking for more of that giving spirit.

"We need those coats. We need them now, we need them today," Wisdom said.