One glance in Detroit's Greektown 34 years ago inspired Oakland sheriff's coat drive
It was a chilly night 34 years ago that tugged at the heartstrings of an Oakland County cop and led to one of metro Detroit's longer-running winter clothing drives.
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard recalled that he was a rookie police officer, in what then was a small department in Bloomfield Township.
“I was working afternoons, and one of my favorite places to go after I got off at midnight was Greektown in Detroit,” Bouchard said last week.
“One night at about 1 a.m. when I came out of the restaurant, there were people huddled around a steam grate. And a number of them didn’t have coats, so I thought at least if they had coats they’d be warmer.
“That was really the genesis of the whole thing,” he said. By that he means his launch of Coats for the Cold, a yearly drive that collects donated outerwear for needy residents of Oakland County.
At the time, Bouchard was a member of the Beverly Hills Village Council, so he involved his hometown friends as well as police coworkers in that first Coats for the Cold 34 years ago. Since then, the drive has grown from gathering scores of coats, to hundreds and lately thousands of them.
As metro Detroit's weather shows, the hardship of winter is already here for those who lack warm coats. Looking ahead to January, FarmersAlmanac.com says Midwesterners can expect “more than their fair share of cold and flaky weather.”
Although Coats for the Cold ends its collections Tuesday afternoon, there’s still time to drop off new or gently used outerwear at more than 80 locations throughout Oakland County. For a full list go to: https://bit.ly/3p4ZbaM.
More: Coats for the Cold details
More: Metro Detroit homeless service providers gear up for another winter in the pandemic
According to the drive’s website, “The new or clean, used coats collected during the month of November will be given to numerous different charitable organizations who will then distribute the coats to those most in need at no cost.”
Despite the pandemic, donors were generous last year, giving about 5,000 coats, said Mandy Ford, spokeswoman for the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office. This year, with cold weather already here, Ford said: “We would love it if people could make a last-minute donation." Donors can leave coats at any County Sheriff’s substation, any branch of Genisys Credit Union, any 1-800-Self-Storage.com location, or any Real Estate One office in Oakland County.
“There are quite a few other places, too, like the Pleasant Ridge Community Center and the Berkley Library,” Ford said.
Contact Bill Laitner: blaitner@freepress.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Oakland County sheriff collects coats as cold weather sets in
