After perusing the racks at the coats for kids set up Briana Covington hit the jackpot.

 

“I found a really nice coat,” said Briana Covington.

 

“It was worth the wait. We got a coat and it happened to be a brand new coat,” explained Briana’s mother Teresa Forney.

 

Like always the line for coats for kids Saturday was so long it went through the parking lot at the Salvation Army headquarters and out to Pearl Street.

 

“We certainly do measure the need by the line,” explained Thomas Perks with the Salvation Army.

 

Eventually everyone got in and got a coat. Something that really touched Briana.

 

“Babies don’t have coats, kids don’t have coats, grown ups don’t have coats and now they do because of all these wonderful coats they have here,” said Covington.

 

“There’s kids out there that dont’ have the basics, like a winter coat and winter already started this year,” said Craig Swimm with .

 

Keeping kids warm is a team effort, ABC40 and Fox 6 along with the Salvation Army and WMAS and ESPN radio rallying the community to donate new or gently used coats to give to the less fortunate.

 

Our own Dave Madsen and other member of ABC40 team helped kids find just the right coat.

 

“We were very cold, we came to this last year and got a coat and we ended up wearing them in the house because it was so cold,” explained Forney.

 

There was some concern this year the donations might suffer because the great need after the tornado.

 

 ”The community is stretched to the end of it’s line because right after the tornado the community rallied to say I care about my neighbors and I think this is a continuation of that,” added Perks.

 

 And for those who did donate.

 

“Thank you for bringing these out. You are a really good person,” said Briana Covington.

 

Fifteen hundred coats were given out Saturday.