The Final Count!

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

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!

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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...

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