Students at Anson Elementary were given brand new winter coats Tuesday.

Lennox and Anson volunteers, in cooperation with Operation Warm, set up tables and laid out 350 coats for 250 to 300 students in attendance.

Anson School Resource Specialist Jayden Sellers said during the event students were matched with a Lennox volunteer, akin to a personal shopper, who escorted them to a table. Then the students picked out the color and size.

“They lit up, smiling,” he said. “It made them feel good and they got their own personal coat. Volunteers wrote their names in the coat, so it was really special.”

Sellers said more than half of the Anson Elementary children were in need of a winter coat.

“At recess at certain temperatures, kids need a coat,” he said. “Some don’t bring one, so it’s nice to know they have one.”

The giveaway at Anson might have also been done in record time, Seller said. What was supposed to take three hours was completed in less than an hour and a half.

Lennox HR Support Brittany Havens attributed the speed of the process to the mixture of employees, including hourly.

“A lot of our hourly employees work on the assembly line,” she said. “It’s part of their everyday routine to get the job done in a timely manner. I think that contributes to some of it. Plus, it was well organized too, with the help of Operation Warm. Everything was laid out and a process all ready before the kids came out.”

Havens said the effort is a great way to give back to the community, and was something Operation Warm approached them about.

“We couldn’t turn down the opportunity to give back to the community in an impactful way,” she said. “It went really well. I saw a lot of happy kids picking out their own coat. They got to make that decision themselves, rather than a parent or guardian. The fact they got to be out here with their fellow classmates and out of their normal routine of sitting in the classroom, I think it was a fun experience for them.”

This was not Operation Warm’s first time in Marshalltown. Last year, they provided coats for students at Woodbury Elementary and in 2023, gave them to Rogers Elementary.

“Operation Warm is the organization that does this and they had a wish list,” Sellers said. “We were on the wish list and selected for this year to get this.”

Operation Warm Volunteer Engagement Manager Jean Burnett said the national nonprofit organization chooses locations to distribute coats based on need.

“If a principal signs up their school, they know there is a large population of under-resourced children,” she said. “They may be a Title I school, have a large free and reduced lunch program. They may have families who are struggling, and if there are under-resourced children in need at a school, we try to help. We don’t put a spotlight on children who are in desperate need. Every single child at this event, at this school, got a free coat. That’s how we provide warm confidence and hope.”

The giveaways are completely free, Burnett added, and if there are leftover coats, they are left at the school.

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Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or

bradstream@timesrepublican.com.