December 2, 2005

Viet Heritage Society helps collect 2,500 coats for Hurricane Katrina victims

Volunteers for the Renew Hope Project, an intake and distribution agency, inspect, label, sort and package the donated coats.

In October, the Viet Heritage Society organized a winter coat drive for school children impacted by Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi and Alabama.

The goal? Northern California would strive to collect 1,000 coats and Southern California would do the same. According to Interim Executive Director Ryan Hubris, the drive garnered nearly 2,500 coats for children primarily kindergarten to eighth grade.

Michael Hampton of the Renew Hope Project, an intake and distribution agency in Biloxi, Miss., distributed the first 400 coats on Nov. 19. Santa greeted the children as about 12 volunteers fitted the coats and prepared hot dogs and other goodies for them.

The next day, Santa and the Biloxi volunteer group went to Bayou LaBatre, Ala., where they distributed another 400 coats to children of that community. Just before Thanksgiving, the Buddhist community in New Orleans handed out another 400 coats.

A perfect fit!

“The children were really excited to see the coats,” said Hampton.

“They remarked to us that they were the latest styles and they liked the idea that the tags were still on the coats. They asked us to thank the people of California for their gifts. Of course, each had a big smile when they left.” 

This month, the Renew Hope Project expects to go to more communities in South Mississippi in hopes of distributing the remainder of the coats. Yet three months after Hurricane Katrina, life is far from normal for cities such as West Gulfport and Waveland, Miss. 

“The problem in this area is that there is so much damage that the governments are still restricting access into these areas, even to the landowners,” said Hampton.