Warm Winter Wear Wanted for Needy Neighbors

Killerstix for Your Winter Coats

Story by Bernadette Cahill

Every day until December 1, customers of Papa’s Pizza To Go, located at 3045 Tynecastle Highway in Banner Elk and 456 Hardees Alley in Newland, can help neighbors and receive a free order of Killerstix worth about $5—both at the same time. All they have to do is donate a gently used overcoat—any type or size—and Papa’s will arrange to have the collected coats distributed to Avery County families in need of winter warmth.

Papa’s has set up the Killerstix for winter coats program in its Sugar Mountain and Newland locations in response to the concern that customers have been expressing about families with kids but without the money to buy warm coats for bitter cold winter days, said Hillary Pouin, general manager of Papa’s.

“Customers would come in and tell of local families needing winter coats,” Pouin said.

The president of the Banner Elk Elementary School’s PTO had told of a few families in need of coats, and others had heard of several families similarly placed at Newland Elementary. Many people wanted to help, but “a lot of people didn’t know where to donate their coats and they also wanted to make sure that coats they donated would remain in the county for local people,” Pouin said.

So Papa’s decided to organize the collection. The goal is 150 coats by December 1—a number Pouin is optimistic about reaching because “just with our employees alone, we have got about 20 to 25 coats,” she said.

The coat distribution will take place through WAMY in Newland to families who are victims of domestic violence and through Avery County Ram’s Rack.

“This is a great way to get people to do some good [for Avery County] families,” said Pouin, who added that if each member of a whole office each donated a coat, they could feed themselves lunch at the same time. Killerstix are breadsticks with cheese.

Papa’s also intends to organize a collection of new, unwrapped toys in December.

Two other businesses also have local coat drives going on.

Mast General Store’s 5th annual “share the warmth” campaign takes place in conjunction with Columbia Sportswear, and calls for clean coats, jackets, blankets and sweaters. The drive runs until November 30. Many items distributed in past years were new items from Columbia Sportswear donated through Mast Stores. The drop-off point for local donations is at the Mast General Store in Valle Crucis.

A Cleaner World is the collection point for the New Market Center cleaner’s Give A Kid A Coat annual coat donation program for needy children and adults throughout the area, which also concludes November 30. The Cleaner World’s campaign collects and cleans the coats.

Both the Mast Store and Cleaner World donations will be available at the new Salvation Army Family Store at 7979 Highway 105 South, on the left side of the road just before Foscoe.

For more information about the Killerstix for Coats program, call Papa’s Pizza To Go at 828-898-3313. For the Share the Warm program, call Mast General Store at 828-963-6511; and for the Give a Kid a Coat program, call A Cleaner World at 828-265-1888.