‘Incredible kindness’ means hundreds of people can pick up a coat to keep warm this winter

A St Helens charity is helping to keep people in the town warm this winter thanks to the ‘incredible kindness’ of people who’ve donated hundreds of coats.

Halton and St Helens Voluntary and Community Action had planned to hold only one event offering people the chance to choose free puffas and parkas after launching its first ever Pick A Winter Coat campaign.

But it was so overwhelmed by generous donations, it needs to hold two.

Gill Ellison, senior community development officer for the St Helens team, says:

“The generosity and incredible kindness hasn’t surprised us because people in this community often pull together to help each other.

“But it is amazing. I think people are aware of the needs and challenges on family life from all sorts of aspects.”

“They understand. And it’s not just those who will receive a coat that will feel good, giving and helping can make you feel good too.”

The coat campaign, part of a larger ‘Share the Warmth’ initiative, has been going in the Widnes arm of the charity for some years and ‘it’s built up and built up’. But this is the first time St Helens has decided to hold the event.

Gill said:

“We’ve been talking about it for some time, but lack of storage has been a problem. We were looking for sites for donations and collections and kept hitting brick walls, but decided to do a smaller pilot and see how it went.”

“We work closely with St Helens Parish Church which is celebrating the building’s 100th anniversary next year and they have allowed us one of their rooms as a collection point.

“We also had a couple of boxes in the reception area of The Beacon in College Street – and the boxes kept filling up and filling up. 

“We were emptying them daily – and I’m sure it would have carried on going that if we’d had longer.

“Last week we took all the coats to the Parish Church where staff members from Amazon in Haydock kindly volunteered their time and helped with sorting coats into sizes, and ready for racks.”

The event was begun after seeing it held successfully in other parts of the country:

“There was a need for it, and not just among the homeless community or other disadvantaged groups, but lots of people because of the cost of living crisis.

“We have a food pantry which addresses some of the issues, and we thought this would be a really beneficial project too.

“And,” she goes on, “we are also concerned about the amount of items going to waste and into landfill.”

As well as coats of all styles and sizes, people have donated hats, scarves and gloves.

“As soon as we put out an appeal on social media people were saying how much it was needed. 

“You forget not everyone can always afford new things, or a warm winter coat. And people will sometimes put children or elderly parents first and go without themselves.”

The first Pick A Winter Coat event will be held at St Helens Parish Church in the town centre on Saturday, November 15 between 10am – 2pm, when people can pop in, pick a coat, and grab a brew at the café.

The Live Well Directory and other local services that can help this winter will also be there.

The second event will be held at the YMCA Beacon Building on College Street on Wednesday, November 12, 9am-1pm.

Gill says:

“We are so grateful for all the help, from the Amazon team who helped us to sort the coats, to Neil ‘The Bus Walker’ Atherton who gave coats to Halton and to ourselves from staff at Arriva, and Matalan who gave us hangers to put the coats on.

“Next year we hope to expand it across the town to have more collection points so instead of hundreds it might be a thousand, or more.

“And for every coat, it means someone is keeping warm in winter.” 

Find out how you can get involved here.

Find all the latest St Helens news here.

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