The season of generosity has officially begun in North Royalton. As part of the annual Coats for Kids Stuff the Bus collection event, members of the North Royalton High School Football Team collected 313 winter coats and nearly $2,600 for those in need in northeast Ohio. The event, now in its seventh year, stations a yellow North Royalton school bus at the Board of Education Office and beckons motorists to “Stuff the Bus” with donations of new or gently worn children’s coats and cash donations. Adults coats were also accepted.
From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Nov. 19, high school students and girls’ soccer players eagerly greeted motorists in the “drive and drop” style car line, packed donated coats in bags of 10 each, and placed them on empty school bus seats, with the goal of having every single bus seat filled.
The popular annual event also happened to fall during the community’s first snow of the season, but the frigid temps, cold wind gusts and swirling snowflakes didn’t appear to faze the energetic students as they waved handmade poster board signs from the Ridge and Royalton road sidewalks and gathered to greet those making donations in the drive and drop line.
“It all adds to the fun,” said eighth-grader Emily Krusinski of the snowy weather. “It’s just really great to know you are helping people. This is also a really wonderful team-building activity.”
Event Coordinator and football and soccer mom Karyn Bernhardt is now in her fourth year orchestrating the event. The special education teacher said she enjoys supporting those in need and exposing young people to this type of donation event. Robyn Niedermeyer, whose son is a North Royalton junior and member of the football team, was also on-site to lend a hand during the day.
“Participating in something like this teaches young people empathy,” Niedermeyer said. “These are lucky kids who are doing well, but participating in this event lets them know that not everyone is so fortunate and not everyone is doing so well.”
Dale Haberkorn, a resident of North Royalton for 45 years, pulled up Nov. 19 to donate a pile of gently worn coats that once belonged to his grandchildren.
“It’s just a real nice thing to do this time of year,” he said of the Stuff the Bus event. His generous sentiments echoed many of those motorists who pulled up to either donate cash or drop off coats.
Inside the school bus, North Royalton High School junior Curt Sprunger assisted with packing donated coats into large plastic bags and placing them on the seats.
“This fundraiser helps with the overall good feeling of helping those in need, especially children,” Sprunger said.
At the conclusion of the five-hour event, a representative from Coats for Kids arrived to transport the items to a warehouse center where they were sorted by size. The goodwill continued with machine washing and dry cleaning services donated by Cintas and Fairmount Cleaners. Zeppe’s Pizza in North Royalton also donated sheet pizzas to feed hungry afternoon volunteers, and Becker’s Donuts supplied fresh donuts to morning crews.
The cleaned coats will make their way to social service agencies throughout Ohio. The Coats for Kids initiative began in 1981 after local radio station employees became aware of a large number of area children missing school in the winter because they did not have warm coats, according to information released from Ann Gurin, marketing coordinator for Coats for Kids. That first campaign filled the station with coats, and since then, millions of dollars have been raised and hundreds of thousands of new and like-new coats have been distributed to northeast Ohio children in need.
By SARA MACHO HILL
Contributing Writer