Coat drive keeps West Side school students warm

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — As temperatures begin to fall, some students at Mary C. Snow West Side Elementary School in Charleston now have a new coat.

Volunteers with Operation Warm, a national nonprofit, were at the school Thursday morning to gift 360 brand new coats to students.

Representatives with Diversified Energy, a company that owns thousands of oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, took part in the effort.

“As a gas company we want to keep people warm during the winter and we want to do that with coats as well,” said company spokesperson Hannah Hutson.

Hutson said while back-to-school supplies like backpacks, folders and binders are needed for the classroom, warm clothing also plays a critical role in helping students get to and from school in the winter months.

“We want these kids to worry less about staying warm in the winter. We want them to be able to worry about their school work and running around with their peers,” she said.

Hutson said they’re making a difference because coats can be very expensive. The students on Thursday received their coats for free and got to pick the color and style they wanted.

“One kid said to us ‘this is the first jacket I’ve gotten in a while’,” Hutson said.

Destiny Spencer, school principal at Mary C. Snow, said it’s nice to see Operation Warm give back to families on the West Side that need the help.

“Some of our students do lack resources, so just providing them with a jacket and the fact that everybody gets one whether they have the resource or not I think is a great opportunity,” Spencer said.

Winter hats were also handed out Thursday.