Have an extra coat? Here’s where you can donate it this winter season

If you have a spare moment, you might consider rummaging around your closet to see if you have a spare coat that could be put to good use this winter.

Seamus Heffernan, a resident worker with the non-profit Connective, is looking for 200 of them. He’s organizing a coat drive to distribute warmer layers to those who need them.

While in casual conversation one day, he realized that it’s an area he could help out.

“Someone said, ‘Man, it’s getting cold out there.’ And it kind of clicked with me, like, ‘Oh, what? We should just do a coat drive,” he said.

Heffernan reached out to the Tri-Cities Homelessness and Housing Task Group, who helped coordinate drop off spots. He then told his employer, Connective, who thought it was a “great idea” and said they’ll push it out on social media.

They’ll take new or gently used coats for adults, kids, and all genders, with both Connective and the Task Group distributing the coats to their clients and non-profit partners.

“We’re going to have no problem getting these to people who need it,” he said, adding that is the partners who deserve the credit.

The drive started on Nov. 18 and runs until Dec. 16. With Dec. 2 the halfway point, and Heffernan thinks they have collected about 100 coats by now. 

“We want to keep that momentum going,” he said. “I’m overwhelmed with the generosity of the people in the Tri Cities who — just by seeing a Facebook post, or seeing a poster or seeing something on the Tri City Community News Channel — they were willing to rummage through their stuff and say, ‘Hey, I don’t really need this anymore, but now someone who needs it is going to get their hands on it.”

And he hopes it will become an annual tradition.

“With luck, I’ll be talking about Coats for Cold, 2026,” he said.

People with coats to donate can drop them off at the following locations until Dec. 16.

• Port Moody Rec Centre Lobby
• 477 Lakeview Street, Coquitlam
• 2986 Forestridge Place, Coquitlam