First-Grader Organizes Winter Coat Drive

Some of the winter coats hanging at Westborough’s Armstrong Elementary School’s front hall are there “because some kids don’t have them,” first-grader Tessi Lawler says.

Lawler started the winter coat, mitten, hat and glove drive for kids, and adults, on Jan. 7. The drive ends next Friday, Jan. 18.

The donations will be brought to Foundations in Worcester, said Tessi’s mother, Maureen Lawler.

“They have people come in all the time that are maybe homeless, or are looking for a place to live,” she said Wednesday.

“When you go to Worcester, you see so many homeless people standing on the corner.”

Tessi said all donated coats “need to be clean, and (have a) working zipper.”

“We wouldn’t wear it, we don’t want to donate it,” Maureen said.

Tessi’s sister Natasha, now a fourth-grader, organized a drive last year, in November 2011, collecting about 75 coats for SMOC in Marlborough, Maureen said.

“I think we’re going to make it a tradition, and do one every year,” she said.