ALLENTOWN, Pa. – As cold temperatures hang around, a need is being met for many in our area Wednesday.
WFMZ broke a record this year during our annual coat drive with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. And Wednesday, those coats are going to grateful families in Allentown.
The line wrapped around the block before the doors of the Salvation Army opened at 10 a.m.
People told us, with the snow falling on Tuesday, the coat distribution could not have come at a better time.
“I can’t afford one right now, and I just went back to work recently. So, I’ve been out of work for a while,” said Dana Morgan, who was at the center Wednesday.
“Right now, we’re in a hardship. We’re not able to get ourselves jackets. So them helping us out with jackets for all of ours will help us out a lot,” said Janelle Hamsher, who has two boys she’s looking to bundle up.
“If I can get a bigger size than this for both of them, or just like a regular jacket for them. Anything will help.”
And inside, she found just what she was looking for.
Ismael Correa is the Corps Officer at the Allentown Salvation Army. He says there are thousands of families like Hamsher’s that rely on these coats.
“We hope to meet the need. We hope to run out of coats. If we don’t we, after an event like this, we always put a coat rack in front of our entrance, and we just hang coats there, open to the public,” said Correa.