St. John’s Lutheran Church of Austin would like to thank all of the area churches and the United Way who contributed to the coat drive. We would also like to thank the Austin Daily Herald and KAAL -TV for helping to tell the community about the drive.

Many organizations such as the United Way, who partnered with us, the Welcome Center, Semcac, Mower County Human Services and many area churches helped to get the word about the drive out to people in need. We thank them also.

About 175 coats were given out through generous donations of gently used and a few new coats to those in need of a coat. We did have to turn many children away because we did not have enough children’s coats. There is discussion of how to provide more children’s and young adult coats next year.

Joanne Rasmussen,

Austin