Tri-Cities Rotary clubs join forces to provide new winter coats to kids in need

For 14 years, the St. Charles Breakfast Rotary Club has provided winter coats for children of all ages in need. These are new coats — not used, gently used or donated by others. The coats are purchased from monetary donations made through the Koats for Kids campaign. Last year, they delivered a total of 786 coats and jackets.

This year, the club, recently renamed the Rotary Club of St. Charles-Geneva, has kicked off the 15th annual Koats for Kids campaign with the goal of giving the outerwear to various locally recipient groups, including Lazarus House and Salvation Army in St. Charles, the school districts in Geneva, Batavia and St. Charles, as well as Kane County Specialty Courts. The campaign runs through Dec. 9.

According to Tassie Brautigam, a longtime Rotary member who heads the project, the idea for the coat drive developed years ago when people noticed many requests for coats on the Salvation Army Angel Tree tags.

“Knowing the expense of a winter coat, the idea was hatched,” she said.

That first year, the campaign raised $3,000 from one fundraising event, and donated coats back to the Salvation Army.

Over they years, other organizations/groups became recipients of the coat drive. During the pandemic, the St. Charles Breakfast Rotary teamed with Operation Warm, a registered nonprofit that has been providing coats to children throughout the country since 1998.

This allowed the club to be more efficient with its purchase and shipping costs, which resulted in being able to purchase more coats.

In 2023, the St. Charles organization teamed with the Rotary Club of Batavia, making the drive even stronger.

Volunteers from both the Rotary Club of St. Charles-Geneva and Rotary Club of Batavia meet to sort, tag and deliver the coats. This year’s goal is 1,000.

“We tag the coats only by size in order to fill the requests made by our recipient groups,” Brautigam said. “No one on the Rotary sees any names of those children who will receive the coats.”

Donations are being accepted by checks made payable to St. Charles Breakfast Rotary Foundation (SCBRF) to P.O. Box 927, St. Charles IL, 60174, or through the Operation Warm site at bit.ly/Koats2025/.

While a donation made by credit card to Operation Warm shows a fee, should the donor accept to add that fee, the fee comes back to the Rotary, she explained. A receipt is automatically generated within minutes.

For details on donation opportunities for this program, email Tassie Brautigam at flower160921@gmail.com or Sue Peterson at suepete407@gmail.com.