PRINCETON, W. Va. -When temperatures drop to single digits, it’s important to bundle up as best you can. Unfortunately, not everyone can afford warm winter gear, but with the cold reaching dangerous levels, they can’t afford not to either. However, a local nonprofit is doing their part to fulfill that need.
Most of the time, the nonprofit “Community Connections” is putting its effort toward conducting outreach programs like substance use prevention and youth activities. However, when the temperatures began to drop well below freezing, they found another way to help those in need and started holding a drive to gather hats and gloves.
“So, we work in close contact with the organizations that we distribute them to and the city planners that organize the warming centers, and really, they just come to us and let us know when we have a need…” says Callie Lamb, communications manager for Community Connections, “…if there’s anybody that we can help get out of the cold or folks that are having trouble with their heating in their homes, we are more than happy to do that because it is just so drastically cold.”
Lamb says they have experience doing similar drives, successfully distributing the items to those who need them the most. She’s seen just how important these items can be and says the need in this area during extreme cold conditions is “huge.”
“Here in Princeton and Bluefield, we know that is absolutely a problem that we have seen with folks out in the cold who are in need of assistance and items to keep them warm as we go into these cold fronts, so we know that it is definitely an important purpose that we are fulfilling with these items,” says Lamb.
Lamb encourages those wanting to help to donate new or gently used hats and gloves to their donation box out front and says the box will be there day or night to help them “keep the community warm during this desperate time of need.”
If you would like to donate, you can find them at 215 S Walker Street in Princeton, West Virginia. Lamb says those in need of assistance from Community Connections can give them a call or message them on their Facebook page.
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