Beyond Warmth

The mission of Operation Warm is simple… "to provide new winter coats to children in need through strategic and community partnerships, with a wide variety of donors and community organizations around the country.” Their vision is that every child, wearing a new winter coat, will be healthy, able to attend school regularly and develop strong self esteem. In just over a decade they have distributed over 600,000 new coats to children, making them one of the largest donors of new coats in the country.

In 1998, Operation Warm founder, Dick Sanford read a story in a local paper that both angered and inspired him. The article mentioned local children freezing, while waiting for their school bus, because they had no winter coats. Puzzled how this could occur in a relatively affluent Pennsylvania community, he began to look at children on their way to school and noticed that many were in fact not wearing winter coats. With his own money, Sanford went to a local department store and bought 58 coats. With the help of the Longwood Rotary Club, they distributed the coats to local children who did not have them. As they say, the rest is history.

Since 1998, when it distributed 58 coats, Operation Warm has now provided a total of over 500,000 new coats to children in over 26 states across the country. Operation Warm partners with a wide range of organizations to find and support children in schools, churches and other social service organizations whose families cannot afford winter coats. By working with a large group of Strategic Partners, we have been able to rapidly expand our reach.

In 2009 Operation Warm collaborated with 4 other strategic community groups to provide new winter coats to children in Westmoreland County. Westmoreland Community Action, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Laurel Region, Seton Hill Child Services and Westmoreland County Children’s Bureau were the partner organizations and a grant via the Community Foundation of Westmoreland County and its unrestricted grantmaking pool – Westmoreland Now & Forever Fund – was able to provide 660 coats for children in Westmoreland County. In early fall of 2009 the community partners came together to collect their winter coats and celebrate the gift of warmth. The coats were then distributed to children across the county who through hardship and struggle value the gift of the coat way beyond its material value.

Operation Warm has recently added a new initiative to its coat program called “Beyond Warmth”. “Beyond Warmth” is a program component associated with Operation Warm’s coat distribution and strategic community partners wherever possible which expands the impact of coat distribution by fostering engagement in other services that improve the quality of a family’s life. In other words, the coat is used as a “lever” to create value beyond warmth for the families, organizations and communities served. Examples of “Beyond Warmth” strategies include distributing the coat in conjunction with another good or service (i.e., food from a pantry, case management referrals or as an incentive for participation in other social service program activities). Partnering with strategic community organizations, and implementing the “Beyond Warmth” initiative, allows Operation Warm to have a long-term impact on poverty.

For further information about Operation Warm please visit their website at: www.operationwarm.org