PS 676 Coat Drive, by Nathan Weiser

Redemption Drive had a coat drive on December 3 that was held at PS 676 and many families got free winter gear for the cold weather.

Redemption Church has been having their coat drive since 2016. They partnered with the Metropolitan New York Baptist Association and the Baptist Convention of North Carolina/South Carolina to provide free coats and share the warmth to families in need.

This was part of a city wide initiative called Coats for the City organized by the Metropolitan New York Baptist Association. Throughout the city, 15-18 other churches organized similar coat drives like the one that happened at PS 676. The first overall Coats for the City was in 2015.

According to Redemption Church Pastor Pacheco, a big part of the success of this coat drive is due to the Baptist Convention in North Carolina and South Carolina.

“They are the ones that recruit and get the coat donations in North and South Carolina and a team actually drives up here for this weekend and they deliver to us,” Pacheco said. “They distribute to all the churches. Every church gets between 300 and 500 coats.”

Redemption Church got about 500 coats from them and then from local organizations they collected another 300 coats. Area public schools, BASIS Independent Brooklyn and their church members made donations that added up to the 300 coats.

Many, many community members came when the coat drive started at 10 a.m. There were people lined up already in anticipation.

Initially it was divided up into four different sessions. There were about 25 people per session, which added up to about 100 families. Each session was 15 minutes, and they would be able to take what they wanted.

After the fourth session, they left it open for any stragglers that would come through until about 12:30 when they packed everything up so it could be ready to be given away later on.

If it was a family of four, each person could get two items, so eight to 10 pieces in terms of coats. They could also take what they needed in a section that had gloves, hats, scarfs, pants and sweatshirts.

There were 17 tables in the cafeteria that were filled with coats and the other items, and the volunteers offered assistance. It was organized by size and there was a men’s section, a women’s section and one for kids.

The first two years of the Redemption Church coat drive were actually in Coffey Park in the cold since they did not yet have a location as a church. After those two years, they were able to have this community coat drive indoors.

“Doing the coat drive in PS 676 helps us to organize it and make sure people are not in the rain the entire time,” Pacheco said. “The first one we did was about 16 degrees.”

Another added benefit of having PS 676 as the location is that the families of the school are prioritized during the coat drive.

“If there are families on the line that are from the public school here they get first dibs on coats,” Pacheco said. “We work really well with Ms. Marie and Ms. Figueroa to make sure the kids from the school have access first.”

Redemption Church sent out emails to organizations in Red Hook like Cora Dance and Red Hook Art Project so they could let their families know that this coat drive was happening. They also used social media before the event.

The Red Hook Recreation Center was going to pick up coats at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday that afternoon and bring coats to a local shelter that they have a partnership with.

There was a community member that was going to take some coats to another shelter. Later during the week, the CAMBA Park Slope Women’s Shelter on 8th Avenue was going to pick up clothes to distribute.

They were also going to keep some of the donated clothes at the school so that throughout the winter if families in the school or in the neighborhood need clothes they can get them.

“Nothing is going to waste,” Pacheco said. “We are going to make sure that it gets distributed to other places that need it as well as keeping some local, so as people need, they have access to it.”

The Metropolitan New York Baptist Association connected Redemption Church to the network in North Carolina and South Carolina.

There were 13 students and a few staff members that came from a ministry at Coastal Carolina University to help at this event, and there was a small contingent that came from North Carolina.

Aside from the volunteers from North and South Carolina that came to the coat drive, Redemption Church’s core volunteer team also helped. Pacheco also organizes a weekly food drive for about 300 families on Thursdays.

The connection with Coastal Carolina and Redemption Church started five years ago through a vision trip that David Neace took with three students.

According to Neace, various locations across North and South Carolina collected the coats and other clothes and then it was dispersed to the different sights in NYC. There were also seven Coastal Carolina students helping at a location in Woodside.

Nathan Weiser