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‘Cover Up Our Kids’ expands

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By Rick McCrabb, Columnist 2:35 AM Saturday, November 21, 2009

MIDDLETOWN — Shena Pruett is wired differently than most of us.

We see a child not wearing a coat, and we turn up the heat in our automobiles.

Pruett sees a child without a coat, and she starts a coat drive.

For the seventh straight year, Pruett is leading the “Cover Up Our Kids” campaign, which she hopes one day will provide outerwear to every needy child in the country.

But first she’s expanding the program from the Middletown and Lebanon school districts to include the Lakota Local School District.

For Pruett, this drive to give out coats — she calls it a “hand up, not a hand out” — began years ago when she and her husband, Mike, were unable to provide coats for their four children.

That year, her father gave the children new coats, and right then, an idea was born.

“I said, ‘I’m so blessed. How can I help others?’ ” she said.

She contacted Middletown schools, which allowed her to store the coats in the administrative offices, and called Gough Lamb Dry Cleaners, which agreed to clean every coat for free.

She realizes — given the current economic situation — that the need will be even greater this year.

“Absolutely,” she said. “But I don’t want to be a burden to people. I don’t want them to give more than they can. I know people are rolling pennies, pinching pennies, cutting coupons.

“We’re all struggling, but if you can give a coat, what a major difference that will make.”

For Pruett, the coat campaign follows what she has learned from the Rev. Lamar Ferrell at Berachah Baptist Church. She wants to take care of those closest to her.

“I know what the Lord wants me to do,” she said. “I can’t sit back and let a need pass. Taking the easy way never has been my way. You can’t outgive God.”

Pruett works at Marsh’s and as a special education teacher’s aide at Highview Elementary School. She said for some students, their only meals are served at schools.

“It’s sad, but it’s true,” she said. “They need their bellies fed so we can feed their minds.”

And they need coats to stay warm.

Contact this columnist at (513) 705-2841 or rmccrabb@coxohio.com

How to give

What: New and gently used coats, gloves, mittens, scarves, ear muffs and hats

When: Through Dec. 21

Where: Shena Pruett, 3205 Flemming Road, Middletown (513) 571-9473; Brenda Joseph, 5008 Riviera Drive, Middletown (513) 432-5112; Middletown YMCA, 1020 Manchester Ave., Middletown (513) 422-9622; Atrium YMCA, 5750 Innovation Drive, Middletown (513) 217-5501; and Ohio Cares About Youth, 3200 Roosevelt Blvd., Middletown (513) 465-1563

Any student who needs free outerwear should contact their school nurse or principal.

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