Saturday morning, Jan. 21, activity at Olympic Moving and Storage on Gravel Road was in high speed. Paul Darby, the co-founder of Coats for Kids, was working and directing the organizing of over $500,000 worth of Kangol hats that were donated by the Bollman Hat Company. More than a dozen students from T.C. Williams High school sorted hundreds of boxes of hats into styles and sizes and repacked them into storage crates. Olympic Moving and Storage donates the crates and the storage space to Coats for Kids. Presently there are more than 18 vaults at the facility in use.
Coats for Kids, founded by Paul and Cheryl Darby in January 2004, is a non-profit organization headquartered in Alexandria. The mission of the foundation is to provide new winter coats, gloves and hats to at-risk and disadvantaged children. In the first year of operation, 834 new coats, hats and gloves were distributed to children, mostly in Alexandria. This year the numbers have more than doubled and the Darbys are sending coats and hats around the country.
In addition to Olympic Moving and Storage, Coats for Kids has received help from Nautica, K-Mart, Wal-Mart, Steve & Barry’s University Sportswear and free overnight shipping anywhere in the U.S. by FedEx. For more information on Coats for Kids visit www.coats-for-kids.org or call 703-567-2628.