Where the hell are the coats?

Speaking of charity, I have a big issue now with the winter coat charities. Now we are always donating our old coats to charities, there are boxes everywhere for old coats. I have never thrown out a coat; I either’ve given them away or donated them. Well, where do these coats go? My best guess is it is a conspiracy theory thing, and some quilt manufacturer is really getting all of these coats and using them for blanket stuffing. Why would I say something so crazy? Try to get a coat. I did. It can’t be done. Seriously.

A kid at school needed a coat, so I figured I would get him one. Easy? Not. The Salvation Army would not help without the family jumping through hoops, which wasn’t the point. It was to help the busy hardworking mom have less to do, not give her more to do. Then I went to Goodwill. Goodwill is an incredibly moneymaking venture; I will never donate to them again after seeing what they charge. Used coats $29.99, really? Add ten bucks and I could’ve picked him up a new one, but as his teacher, I wasn’t doing that. I thought of it at this point, but now it was the principle of the thing - where the hell are all the coats? The churches are wonderful but have limited hours, a working person really can’t get there, so I don’t know what a couple of the church thrift stores would have charged, if anything. I couldn’t get anywhere before 2:00.

So here I am, just trying to get a kid a coat, and I can’t. I called the places that you leave coats and no one knew where the coats actually went so people could get one. I called most of the people I know and no one actually knows where you would go to get one of the thousands of coats that are donated each year. Insanity. A dear friend’s boyfriend had a nice coat he wanted to give away she told me when I called to find out if she knew where to get a coat. So thank A. for the coat, this kid is warm, but what about the next one? Shouldn’t we know where our donations go and be able occasionally to go get something for someone who needs? Right, isn’t that the point? I thought so, but... I can just imagine how hard it is for someone to needs help to actually figure out who to reach out to, to get that help. How do they even know where to go or who to call? I still don’t know where the coats are but I do know where the caring people are, so it’s a leap in the right direction.