7th year of a Bay Area Tradition --

Friday After Thanksgiving (that spells FAT for many reasons) in San Francisco means LIVE television coverage by KTVU Channel 2 at coat drop offs at four Bay Area locations -- Bay Street Emeryville, Broadway Plaza in Walnut Creek, Santana Row in San Jose, and our newest locatio, Westfield Centre in San Francisco.

I was up early to remind viewers of "Mornings on 2" of the coat drive and encourage folks to clean out their closet and help someone in need.

By mid-day we have close to 2,000 coats from all four locations.  Girl Scouts were on hand to help with sorting and counting the coats.

Feeling very sassy!

Living in San Francisco has lots of benefits!  This year I've been able to attend three major conferences because there were no travel costs involved. 

This week I am attending dreamforce -- the annual Salesforce "conference".  I put the word conference in quotes because this is really a HAPPENING!  Close to 18,000 people (most with a techie mindset), learning sessions that are jam packed, cloud bean bag pillows scattered along the halls, a "campground" that is full of vendors, experts and gee-whiz tools.  My mind is "in the cloud" as I try to come away from this with at least one new idea for how the Salesforce platform can help us even more. 

BTW we receive our Salesforce product as a donation from the Salesforce Foundation.  This is an in-kind donation worth up to $10,000 to non-profit organizations -- for which over 7,000 non-profits have taken advantage of this very generous donation.

Got to have a fun photo taken of me with "SasSe" (Sassy!) -- the "no software" character --

Coat = Hope

This is the time of year when I keep a box of Kleenex on my desk -- the messages of thanks, encouragement and need will bring tears to my eyes pretty quickly.

Today we received a message of thanks from the Modesto Gospel Church in California who had received several hundred of the Aeropostale BRAND NEW teen coats.  Powerful words -- I hope you will take a few minutes to read them --

I hope you know this is much more than a functional solution to a problem (cold=coat)--this kind of effort helps to break the mental cycle of our guests feeling like they are nobody. This is especially true at our Teen Center where the kids spend most of their emotional energy battling the consequences of unhappy homes and masking the shame and embarassment that comes with poverty. Perhaps you know all of this very well and it lead you to be a part of your agency--but it's worth repeating that every single coat you have distributed will help to build happy memories in this city for those overwhelmed with hopelessness.



and that's why I work on this project --

"Upcycle" that coat ---

This is the time of year when we get LOTS and LOTS of hits to our website -- from time to time I look thru the referrals to see how people learn about One Warm Coat.

Low and behold, we are listed as "Organizations We Like" by Brooklyn Industries.  This is an amazing concept -- check out their website http://www.brooklynindustries.com/.

Brooklyn Industries is a cutting-edge design company that sells its innovative clothes exclusively through its 10 retail stores and online website. Founded by visionary artists Lexy Funk and Vahap Avsar in 1998, Brooklyn Industries’ stores engage the local community in art, clothing, design and style. The Brooklyn Industries office, design studio and warehouse are located next to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In 2008, in honor of the company's 10-year anniversay, DNR News featured Brooklyn Industries as a brand that is "innovative, dynamic and attractive - quintessentially Brooklyn."

Teens will be warmer ---

We've had the amazing experience of working with Aeropostale, the teen retailer with over 900 stores, on the distribution of 100,000 new teen coats.  Working with more than 150 agencies in all 50 states and 4 provinces, these coats will be distributed during the month of November.

Watch "The Tyra Banks Show" on November 12th for information on the drive and the distribution of the coats in Chicago, Grand Rapids and New York City.

One of our "partner" agencies wrote to tell us what these coats will mean in their community:

"I would like to thank your organization for the heart filled coat program you have put together.  In this part of the US a coat can mean the difference between life and death.  It is nothing for the temp to drop to 50 degrees below zero with a chill factor of 50 below.  I want you to imagine the air, coming out of your mouth.  Turning to ice crystals right before your eyes.  I have seen people so cold until their lips are blue and tears from their eyes are frozen rolling down their cheeks.  Our teens in this area will be grateful and appreciative and warm because of you and your staff, bless you all."

Success with their 1st drive --

Karen Garland of P & L Landscaping in Merrimack, New Hampshire was pretty surprised at the reaction from their community. 

Their 1st One Warm Coat drive (and we hope not their last) resulted in over 175 coats being donated.  All the coats went to one of our long-time partner agencies, the Nashua Soup Kitchen + Shelter.

Here's what we know -- people want to help those in need!

Montana's First Lady prepares for Winter

Montana has a special place in my heart -- and this year that place is even BIGGER.  Montana's Governor and First Lady, Brian and Nancy Schweitzer, stepped forward for the "Coats from the Captiols" campaign early and used this coat drive as part of their message about being "Winter Ready". 

On October 14th Mrs. Schweitzer kicked off the First Lady's Coat drive in Billings with First Interstate Bank and members of the Montana Conservation Corp. 

First Interstate Bank, with 66 branches in Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota, will be collecting coats thru November -- giving all coats to a local agency. 

Since there was a record setting first snowfall on October 6th, I bet lots of folks in Montana were cleaning out their closets.

Live. Life. Fast.

If you are really into skiing, you'll know this brand.  Spyder Active Sports -- with their tag line of Live.Life.Fast -- knows that it's important to be warm.      We're happy to have their support for One Warm Coat and hope that lots of their customers will have lots of warm outwear to donate to those in need.

Oh my goodness!

I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted a comment -- but, as you will see in future blogs, there is good reason for my absence.

We expect to be busier as the Fall months turn into Winter -- and this year has been AMAZING.

Website traffic is up 20% now (that's sounds reasonable) -- and the number of coat drives we are supporting is a DOUBLE of what we were supporting this time last year.  A DOUBLE -- right now we have over 1,800 coat drives on our radar screen.

Already we can see that more people than ever are wanting to help those in need -- and cleaning out the closet is a simple and meaningful way to help.

I'll be sharing LOTS of great stories about folks who are creating One Warm Coat in their community.

Smiling at you all ----