Warming up to a good idea
Coats-to-Coast drive collects winter wear for those in need
By Louisa Taylor, The Ottawa Citizen


Erica Bregman of Jewish Family Services has her hands full
as she organizes Sunday's Coats-to-Coast 'coat drive.'
Photograph by: Bruno Schlumberger, The Ottawa Citizen

Erica Bregman was clearing out her closet last September when she had one of those little epiphanies that grows into a big idea.

"I realized that if I have coats to donate, other people probably do, too; and wouldn't it be great to get everyone to clean out their closet and collect the coats for people who need them," says Bregman, 32.

Soon Bregman, who works at Jewish Family Services (JFS), had enlisted the city's nine Jewish congregations to help out, and Coats-to-Coast was born: a one-day "coat drive" this Sunday. People can drop off warm coats and boots at any synagogue in Ottawa, for redistribution to people who need winter wear.

One local temple, Agudath Israel on Coldrey Avenue, has been doing its own coat drive for five years to benefit clients of a JFS program called Street Smarts, an outreach program for the city's homeless.

The synagogue agreed to Bregman's idea of expanding the drive across the city and adding another beneficiary -- the Labrador Friendship Centre, in Goose Bay.
The centre supports the Innu, Inuit and Métis communities in Labrador with social and cultural programs as well as a hostel and cafeteria.

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