Jan. 22, 2007
| DONATE! DONATE! DONATE! |
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 Jackson-GarrisonHOW DO I PARTICIPATE? Cassen Jackson-Garrison is leading the ‘Cassen’s Coats and Caps for the Counties” drive at two upcoming basketball games. Donate used coats and caps at collection sites around Memorial Gymnasium on these dates: Jan. 25 – WBB vs UT (6 p.m. CT) Jan. 27 – MBB vs. Ole Miss (12 p.m. CT) To purchase tickets to these games, call 615.322.GOLD (option 1) or click here. |
More Information on This Week’s Coat and Cap Drive
Here’s the Middle Tennessee weather report for the upcoming week: cloudy, highs in the low to mid-40’s with lows near freezing; chance of rain or mixed precipitation.
For most of us, we shrug and throw on a sweater or dig out a slightly heavier coat from our closet. A few of us might postpone a golf game – too cold. We complain about the cold snap at the water cooler.
But a visit I had recently has me thinking about kids on the Cumberland Plateau. A school nurse in Van Buren County has kids showing up right now with no coats, ill-fitted coats and shoes that are too short or too big. This nurse should know, she has been buying these kids clothing out of her own pocket for several years. Most school nurses I have known were not making the big bucks.
I’ll confess to having had a tin ear to these kinds of stories.
“Oh come on,” I might reason, “you can’t convince me there are actually kids in this predicament within 100 miles of the Vanderbilt campus. Somebody must be exaggerating.”
I tried to rationalize this story, too, but when the lights go out at night I know this woman is telling the truth. So does Cassen Jackson-Garrison, our football tailback who spent much of his elementary and junior high days living on the streets of Knoxville while his parents struggled with their own problems. He knows winter’s cold sting first-hand.
Cassen has joined forces with the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee on a project that will help kids not just in Van Buren County but across our rural area. “Cassen’s Caps and Coats for the Counties” will be collecting new and gently used coats and caps at Thursday’s women’s basketball game with Tennessee and Saturday’s men’s game with Ole Miss.
The goal is to develop an inventory of winter clothing that will be stored at a central location and available to area school nurses to use when they encounter needy child. It appears that everything is in place except that all-important inventory of coats and caps.
This is where we come in. If you are attending either game, please take a good, hard look at your kid’s closet and see if there aren’t winter items that your family could donate to this special collection. For the more financially fortunate readers, I hope you will consider buying a new coat or some caps and bring those to the entry doors of Memorial Gymnasium. There is a need for winter attire of all sizes and we will have drop-off points on every side of Memorial except the lesser-used west entry.
Our donations will go directly to these area children. There are no middle men, no administrative surcharges. And while you are thinking of it, set your intended donations by the door so you don’t forget them when you leave for the game.
You will be glad you helped some youngster out there, one not so far from where you live.
