MACUNGIE, Pa. – Friday is one of the busiest and proudest days of the year for the staff at WFMZ.<\/p>\n
We’re teaming up with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms for the 11th Annual Coat Drive at the PPL Center in Allentown.<\/p>\n
The coats are donated to the Salvation Army, which distributes the coats to families throughout the Lehigh Valley.<\/p>\n
It’s the end of another blustery school day in Macungie, where 9-year-old Coraleigh Bankas is bundled in her cozy coat.<\/p>\n
“What do you like about your coat?” asked 69 News reporter Rick Holmes.<\/p>\n
“It’s soft on the inside and you can change it between the soft side and the furry side,” she responded.<\/p>\n
Her parents, Jillian and Ryan Bankas, have received coats for all three of their children, 14-year-old Caleb, Coraleigh, and 6-year-old Paisley.<\/p>\n
“The kids all grow so fast, and they wear everything out quickly, and so to be able to go out and pick something quickly is really exciting for them,” said Jillian Bankas.<\/p>\n
People have contributed more than 2300 coats over the last two years, and with winterlike weather settling in early this year, donations are even more urgently needed.<\/p>\n
“I know our girls both got brand new coats last year. And they’re still wearing them. They love them,” Bankas continued.<\/p>\n
The Salvation Army says it’s looking for coats for mom and dads, senior citizens, and especially the little ones, with the economy a constant issue as prices rise.<\/p>\n
A donation this year could prevent a family from making the choice of food over warmth.<\/p>\n
The coats will be distributed by the Salvation Army on December 3rd. The coat drive starts Friday night at 5:00 p.m. at the PPL Center. It runs until 7:00 p.m..<\/p>\n
You can also drop them off at collection bins around Allentown and at the Steel Ice Center in Bethlehem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MACUNGIE, Pa. – Friday is one of the busiest and proudest days of the year for the staff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,21267,21269,1515,21268,2753,16465,21270,28,21266,4508,4506,14361],"class_list":{"0":"post-34063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news","11":"tag-caleb","12":"tag-coraleigh-bankas","13":"tag-food","14":"tag-jillian-bankas","15":"tag-macungie","16":"tag-news-reporter","17":"tag-paisley","18":"tag-pennsylvania","19":"tag-rick-holmes","20":"tag-salvation-army","21":"tag-wfmz","22":"tag-wfmz-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}