Knights of Columbus collecting coats for kids

By Lethbridge Herald on October 17, 2024.

Associate principal Laurie Campmans and students David Adesina and David Carpio sort through a bin of donations toward the Coats 4 Kids campaign Wednesday afternoon at Father Leonard Van Tighem School. Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – apulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The Knights of Columbus of St. Martha’s Parish are striving to help children stay warm this winter by collecting and then donating gently used and new winter coats through their Coats 4 Kids campaign. 

Carmen Mombourquette, campaign chair, said the Knights of Columbus started in Springfield, USA and it has grown to involve over a million of Catholic men who believe that part of being Catholic is to do good works, which is why they are running the campaign here in West Lethbridge. 

“One of the good works that the Knights of Columbus International organization started a number of years ago was to take a look at how we can make sure that children have warm coats for the wintertime and with Lethbridge is pretty obvious as to why children need a warm coat in the wintertime,” said Mombourquette. 

He said that due to the economic circumstances of some families sometimes it is very difficult for them to provide a warm coat for all of the children in the family. 

“So the knights are trying to step in and help with that over the last six or seven years that we’ve been running the Coats 4 Kids campaign on the West side of the city,” said Mombourquette. 

He said they are focusing their efforts on the west side because he is part of St. Martha’s Church and the St. Martha’s Knights of Columbus, so they are being very attentive to the children in the west side schools within the Holy Spirit Catholic School Division. 

“We have been very attentive to the needs of the students of St. Patrick Fine Arts School, Children of St. Martha Elementary School and Father Leonard Van Tighem School,” said Mombourquette. 

He said they ask parents within those schools to look through their children’s closets for gently used coats that could be donated to other students in need. 

“We ask them if they have any coats that can be donated to bring them into the schools’ donation bins. We also go through our church to ask grandmas and grandpas that might want to go out and buy some warm winter coats and put them into the collection box,” said Mombourquette. 

He added that they also have a good relationship with the Bibles for missions thrift store as well as the MMC thrift store which provides them with some warm jackets for them to distribute to the children. 

“Particularly for the students in the upper junior high school which are sometimes hard to come by as they are usually adult size,” said Mombourquette. 

He added that when they are not able to locate appropriate coats for those in need, the Knights of Columbus simply purchase them and distribute them among those who need them within those three schools. 

“I’ve got a wonderful fellow by the name of Mike Slavich, who liaise with the two thrift stores for us and my tremendous wife Sharon, who makes sure every coat is clean, washed, zippers work and the coats are in a really worthy state for the children who would wear them,” said Mombourquette. 

For anyone who might not be within the area where the Knights of Columbus is collecting coats, Mombourquette said they have a few options to help. 

“If they have any gently used, clean and in good working condition coats they wish to donate, they can drop them off at the collection box at St. Martha’s Church or if they’d like to make a monetary donation, they can do so as well at the church,” said Mombourquette. 

He added that any monetary contribution to the campaign will be greatly appreciated, as the funds will be used to purchase coats for the children for whom they are unable to find coats within those donated.