The Big Warm Up Charlottesville

The Big Warm Up Wrap Up!

2011-11-04T18:38:00.000-07:00

First off, thank you to everyone who gave coats!! The coats drive would not be possible if it weren’t for your generous donations!

1174 Coats collected and distributed. AND coats still coming in! Those coats helped these agencies.

Agencies Served:

MACAA Head Start
MACAA Hope House
PACEM
The Haven
Albemarle County Social Services
Charlottesville Social Services
Shelter for Help in Emergency
CHIP
Albemarle County Schools
Charlottesville City Schools
Family Preservation Services
Boys and Girls Club
The Salvation Army
Region Ten
People Places
CYFS
Kingswood Baptist Church
Trinity Presbyterian Church
Community Attention
Infant & Toddler Connection of The Blue Ridge
New Beginnings Church
OAR
Piedmont House
Big Brothers and Big Sisters
Restoration Ministries

Thank you to all our Volunteers:

Jamie Schartz, Jess Meehan, Bryan Garey, Grace Barnes, Lydia Prokosch, Daniel Basuel, Jamie Harris, Dana Lapato, Claire McCormick, Jane Dawson, Jason Ness, Amy Eastlack, Elizabeth Carpenter, Cristina Page, Nica Basuel, Dana Sparks, Henry Matthews, Natallie Manitiuss, Elizabeth Vranas, Mariya Balakirskaya, Carolyn Pelnik, Abigail Wydra, Daniel Basuel, Casey Archer, Jim Trousdale, Joanne Larnotte, Jane Trousdale, Tudor Cisu, Bryan Garey, Cady Garey, Virginia Garey, Evelyn Garey...and of course, our fearless leader, Marnie Allen!!

Many thank to all the places that collected coats for us-, especially Ragged Mountain Running Shop- they collected 184 coats! Also thanks to:

Brown’s Auto
International School
AHS Key Club
Pampered Pets
The Haven
Fashion Square Mall
Mincer’s
University Baptist Church
Aldersgate Church
Church of the Incarnation
State Farm
Crutchfield
Senior Center
UVA – various departments and schools
Portico Church

Thanks to the media coverage from:

NBC29
WINA
Charlottesville Radio Group
92.7
Ragged Mountain Running Shop
The Daily Progress
Cville Weekly

And a special Thanks to Virginia Land Company and Woodard Properties for their generous gift of space. They allowed us to occupy their office space on Harris St and made the drive even better with a great “storage space” and easy accessibility for service providers to pick up their orders for their clients.

Here They Come!

2011-10-06T12:44:00.000-07:00

The coats are coming in. Here is the first of MANY piles. And thanks to Charles W. Hurt and Virginia Land Company we have a storage site! We will be storing and distributing the coats from a lovely locale on Harris Street - we can seriously not thank Charles enough.

Also thanks to Woodard Properties for doing an internal drive, as well as letting us borrow 5 coat racks for storage.

And a thank you to the International School for the internal drive.

We are so grateful for all your support and so are your neighbors! Keep them comin'!

One More Tiny Need

2011-09-21T16:27:00.001-07:00

If you don't have any outerwear to part with, we'd love a donation of boxes of garbage and trash bags as coat sorting is coming up and we need these for delivery. Ever carried a large handful of coats - it's no fun! Garbage bags make it so much easier :)

Drop-Off Locations on Grounds

2011-09-21T16:22:00.000-07:00

Sometimes Grounds can see like another world, but it's still a part of the Big Warm Up (and very much a part of our community)!

Drop off coats and jackets on Grounds at:
Nursing School (McLeod 2004)
Law School
Pavilion VIII on the Lawn
Clark Library
Clemons Library
and Madison House

Look for the big, wrapped boxes!

More Thanks!

2011-09-21T16:20:00.000-07:00

Thank you to Susan Lee for heading up a collection at Blue Ridge ESOP!

Also thanks to UVA's HR Dept, Western Ridge neighborhood, Albemarle High's Key Club, Crutchfield, and State Farm - all are doing internal collections.

We've had amazing support this year. We are all seriously blown away and so, so gracious.
Thanks to everyone a million times over!

The Cutest Coat We've Gotten So Far...

2011-09-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

Donation collection has just begun but we're already receiving super cute coats! Check out this adorable one we've gotten...

If you have any cute coats your kids have outgrown, please donate them and let other children be warm - and look adorable!

Big Warm Up 2011 Has Begun!

2011-09-08T14:56:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday donation boxes were wrapped and distributed throughout the community.

Big thanks to Charles W McDaniel from Hilldrup Companies for donating the donation boxes, and to Mark Janson, Karen Reifenberger, Elizabeth Breeden, Shelley Cole, Karen Shepard for wrapping paper. And of course, big thanks to our many volunteers who wrapped - including our youngest, Grace Barnes

!Our volunteers were Bryan Garey, Grace, and the folks from the APO- Theta Service Fraternity:

Lydia Prokosch

Daniel Basuel

Jamie Harris

Dana Lapato

Claire McCormic

Coats can be dropped off at many locations this year. Check them out:

MACAA

The Haven

Brown’s Auto

The Senior Center

Pampered Pets

Mincer’s

Ragged Mountain Running Shop

St. Thomas Aquinas

Church of the Incarnation

Fashion Square Mall

17 sites across UVa Grounds

Help your neighbors have a warm winter! Donate a coat!

We Love Ragged Mountain Running Shop!

2011-08-25T18:38:00.000-07:00

We're excited to announce that Ragged Mountain Running Shop will be giving customers who bring in a coat to donate to the Big Warm Up a discount on their purchase! Not only will our neighbors benefit from a warmer winter with your donation, but now you can get a little something too :) This is a great way to holiday shopping for your favorite runner!

And the Thank Yous Begin!

2011-08-15T16:11:00.000-07:00

It's not even fall yet and coats and other donations are already rolling in!
We've already received 15 coats for this year's drive PLUS wrapping paper donations from Billie Campbell, Dawn Catlee, Karen Reifenberger. Thank you, Ladies! And thank you to a fourth mystery person who dropped paper off at MACAA.

This year we're taking donations of wrapping paper as well as coats and jackets to decorate our donation boxes, so send any you may our way!

And thanks again!

WOW. WOW. WOW.

2010-12-07T18:52:00.000-08:00

WOW. That's pretty much all we can say. And thank you. This year 1,063 coats were donated to the Big Warm Up Coat Drive - with more coming in! Insane! These coats will be distributed throughout the area and make over 1,000 people happier and warmer.

These organizations will be receiving coats from the drive to donate to their patrons:

The Haven, PACEM, Jefferson Area CHIP, Region Ten, MACAA Head Start, MACAA's Hope House, Offender Aid and Restoration (OAR), area schools, area family support programs, CDSS, ACDSS, the YMCA, the Boys and Girls Club, LOVE INC, SHE, On Our Own, ASG, Belmont Baptist's Clothing Closet, Betty's Church

Here's some more thank yous for you:

Thanks to Ty Smith from SunTrust for donating 75 lbs of nice UVa athletic gear. This gear was handed out with the coats today.

Thank you to Catherine Potter from SunTrust Mortage for the coats she gathered.

Thanks to Martha Johnson from Wells-Fargo/Wachovia for her donation.

And thanks to Sarah Ashworth, President of BNI, not only donated a nice pile of coats but volunteered as well.

A special thanks to Keith McGilvery for his coverage of our drive on NBC29. Look out for the update!

One (of the many) piles of coats:

Our wonderful, coat-sorting volunteers! Last year we had 4 volunteers on sorting day. This past Saturday we had 23! Thank you to these tireless volunteers (sorting coats isn't as easy as it appears!). They are: Kari Miller, Amy Eastlack, Donna Baker, Emily Martin, Jamie Schwartz, Sarah Ashworth, Elizabeth Carpenter, Marietta Feigert, Victoria Feigert, Debbie Tuler, Kobi Feldman, Aaron Fein, Dahlia Litwick, Coby Fein, Sopher Fein, Karen Shepard, Jason Currier, Bryan Garery, Jordan McDaniel, Alissa Morein, and Ella Wheat.

Thanks again to all!

Next year's planning is already getting underway with plans to get coats distributed by mid-October - before it gets chilly! You can start planning too - large size jackets (XL to 5XL) are in highest demand (although jackets for everyone are needed), and they would be a great item to pick up at the end of season on sale. So if you see one for a good price, please snatch it up!

Thanks again. And again! And again!

A Little About an Organization Doing Big Things

2010-11-27T18:17:00.000-08:00

This year we have a new partner, Operation Warm. Big Warm Up, Operating Warm - what's the difference? Well, The Big Warm Up collects new and used coats for all people in need in Charlottesville and Albemarle County, while Operation Warm is a nationwide effort, that has distributed over 600,000 new coats to school children in the past decade. Operation Warm believes that "every child, wearing a new winter coat, will be healthy, able to attend school regularly and develop strong self esteem". The partnership, of course, is a natural one, as the Big Warm Up believes coats are essential to keeping everyone healthy and active in the winter.

If you don't have any coats around to donate, then please donate money to Operation Warm. Just $15 can help to provide a new coat to a child in our community. For more information on Operation Warm, check out their site. For more information on donating locally, contact Valerie Morini at valeriemorini [at] gmail [dot] com. She's a UVa Alum who works for Operation Warm and is working with UVa students to raise money on Grounds to get coats to kids in our area.

The Coats Have Piled Up!

2010-11-27T18:02:00.000-08:00

WOW. We are blown away by how many coats are getting dropped off - and very thankful! The drive is running for only a few more days. Let's aim to double last year's coat count and make 1500 (!) people warmer this winter!

Check out this pics of coats and parkas stacking up at MACAA.

Two More Shout Outs (and two more drop off spots!!!)

2010-11-15T17:19:00.000-08:00

We want to thank two fabulous businesses in town who have dedicated space within their establishments as drop-off points for Big Warm Up coats. Thanks to Pampered Pets and Mincers for taking in coats for us!

A Big Ole Shout Out...

2010-11-15T17:16:00.000-08:00

...to Hollymead Elementary's PTO! This group of fabulous parents gathered over 100 coats for the Big Warm Up.

Thanks Hollymead moms and dads!

Big Warm Up Makes the News!

2010-11-10T08:25:00.000-08:00

The Big Warm Up made the evening broadcast of Charlottesville's NBC29 newscast this week. It's been a great plug for the drive and people have been calling in to know more about the drive and to donate. Thanks NBC29 for your help getting the word out!

Miss the broadcast? Watch the video here.

Let's make this year's drive surpass last year by leaps and bounds!

Coats! Bring Out Your Coats!

2010-11-08T11:40:00.000-08:00

The Big Warm Up 2010 is officially on! We are collecting coats now thru December 3rd during regular business hours at the Haven at First and Market and MACAA. PLUS we will have collection bins around UVa Grounds.

As it's getting colder please remember those in our community who don't have a warm coat to wear when walking to school, waiting for the bus, riding their bike, or maybe to wear at home because the heat doesn't work. If you have a coat to spare, send it our way!

The Final Count!

2009-12-22T17:10:00.000-08:00

So the drive ended a few weeks ago and with the craziness that is the holiday season, plus the freak blizzard that dropped 2 feet on Charlottesville, I'm just now getting around to blogging about the massive success we had with the drive.
All and all we collected - are you ready for this -759 coats! Luckily, most of these coats ended up at their new homes before the big snow! Perfect timing!
The coats benefited the following people and families served by these organizations:

Boys and Girls Club
MACAA Head Start
MACAA Hope House
MACAA Back to Work
Jefferson Area CHIP
Several County and City Schools
Santa Matters Program
Migrant Education- Albemarle County
ARC of the Piedmont
AIDS/HIV Services Group
JABA
SHE
QCC
Pilgrim Baptist Church
Albemarle County Social Services
Charlottesville City Social Services

Marnie Allen and I, the co-chairs of the drive, would like to thank everyone who donated coats as well as all those who helped sort and distribute (see pic below).
Happy Holidays to all and save up your coats for next year!

-Jess
The coats - ready to be sorted, and filling a whole room!The coat sorting volunteers - Jamie Schwartz, Jessica Meehan, Marnie Allen, Toby Lyons, Nancy Kidd, Berlinda Mills and Karen Shepard (not pictured)

Our Official Press Release

2009-11-11T08:38:00.000-08:00

The wonderful Beth Ike, Director of Marketing and Events at the Boys & Girls Club, put together this press release. Please forward it to anyone you might think is interested in helping get coats out to those in need this winter!

"

CONTACT: Jessica Meehan - 423-322-5524 - { jessica at locallectual dot com }

The Big Warm Up Coat Drive Takes Off

Thursday, November 12th — The Big Warm Up is the first coat drive to benefit the children and families served by the Boys and Girls of Central Virginia and MACAA, the Monticello Area Community Action Agency.

The coat drive will be collecting gently used coats for adults and children now through December 1st.

Folks can drop their donations at the following locations:

Saturdays from 11-1 PM outside of the Paramount Theater on the downtown mall
Monday through Friday, during regular business hours at MACAA(1025 Park Street)
At the Fashion Square Mall Sears, where any sales associate can help you.

Find more information and read the blog at www.bigwarmupcville.com "

We love our logo...

2009-11-10T15:31:00.000-08:00

Big, huge, massive THANKS! to Darcey Ohlin at Watermark Design for the awesome logo for the Big Warm Up. Darcey is incredibly creative and came up with this amazing logo for the BWU in about the time it would take me figure out how to make a line in a graphic design program.

If you ever have any logo or graphic needs (including custom Christmas cards!), call on the team at Watermark Design. Check out their great designs, not to mention fabulous site, DesignbyWatermark.com.

-Jess