Coats for the Cold: Help Keep People Warm This Winter

Trudi Carey (left) and Sasha Ablitt are spearheading the One Warm Coat drive to provide winter outerwear to those in need.

A collaboration between Patterson Self-Storage and Ablitt’s Fine Cleaners & Launderers to bring warm coats and blankets to those without is kicking off on November 20.

Starting Monday, people can bring clean, gently used coats, jackets, and blankets to Patterson Self-Storage at 5329 Calle Real in Goleta, or Ablitt’s Fine Cleaners & Launderers at 14 West Gutierrez Street in downtown Santa Barbara. Men’s and children’s coats are most needed, said Trudi Carey, of the Patterson facility. Ablitt’s will dry-clean the coats before handing them out, storing any extras until there is a need, she added.

The One Warm Coat Drive has been in town since 2011, collecting roughly 800 coats in the five years the businesses have held the drive. The national One Warm Coat organization has collected over 5 million coats since its inception for residents of 11 countries.

The drive ends on December 21. Charities like Casa Esperanza, Transition House, and the Santa Barbara Crisis Center will receive the coats and blankets then.

“When it turns cold, we then deliver,” Carey said. “So usually January and February, right after the drive is over.”