Kwantlen ambassadors collect coats and more for homeless

It might not be snowing right now, but the President’s Ambassadorial Team (PAT) hopes students will continue donating their old coats to help the homeless.

The PAT coat drive is collecting “gently-used” men’s and women’s coats, blankets, gloves, hats and new socks, with the donations going to “homeless shelters in the communities that Kwantlen serves.”

Clothing donation boxes, decorated with Christmas wrapping paper, can be found in any of the Kwantlen libraries.

“The [coat] drive was an initiative of one of the PAT members, Patricia Coburn. She and I talked about doing a Kwantlen gives back type thing,” said Shelley Coburn, a recent Kwantlen graduate, who now works for external relations for the president’s office.

PAT is a group of 16 outstanding students who work directly with the president and represent Kwantlen at different functions in the community.

As part of the coat drive, PAT held a bake sale at the Richmond campus on Dec. 8 and will hold another at the Surrey Campus on Dec. 9 from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

“With the money that we’re raising through the bake sale and other donations, we’re going and buying [more] new socks, new hats and new mittens,” Coburn said. “Social justice is something that is important to one of the PAT members and the whole team has pulled together and supported this initiative. It’s nice to give back to the community.”

Coburn believes the harsh winter weather in November made many students aware of the need to give. “People made the connection: ‘It’s very cold and I’m lucky, so I’ll donate,’” Coburn said. “We’ve seen a huge increase in the amount of clothing coming in towards the end of the coat drive.”

According to Coburn, PAT has collected about 16 “gigantic” garbage bags full of clothing so far. Officially, the coat drive ended on Friday, Dec. 10, but Coburn says the boxes will be in the libraries until early next week.