Businesses band together for Salvation Army coat drive

WASILLA — As a gust pushed along Bogard Road, a pair of tents buckled in the wind, nearly taking flight. But the weather didn’t chase away representatives from a pair of local businesses hosting a recent coat drive.

And it didn’t scare away those willing to help the cause.

PrimeLending staff and their neighbors from Kayleigh Spradlin’s Allstate Insurance team joined forces for the first time to for an autumn-centric coat drive in front of their offices off Leatherleaf Loop where people could donate coats or simply offer cash in exchange for pumpkins. All the coats and monetary donations went to the Salvation Army serving the Mat-Su Valley.

“This Valley is so giving as the need grows,” Captain Jeff Josephson, Mat-Su Valley area coordinator and corps officer, said.

Throughout the event, people trickled through the pumpkin patch off the side of Bogard Road, some by happenstance, while others like Josie Nelson discovered it on Facebook. She donated cash for a couple pumpkins picked by her 3-year-old daughter, Teagan.

“She may be small but she’s tough and says, ‘I’ve got this mom,’” Nelson laughed.

She said that she picked up a coat about a month ago at during at a similar event the Grand View Inn and Suites. The event on Thursday was not a pick up spot, save for pumpkins, but a drop off spot. Nelson said that when she saw the event she figured it would be a good way to pitch in.

“They helped me out so I wanted to give back in a way,” Nelson said.

Ben Braendel, production manager for PrimeLending’s Wasilla branch, said that he wants to make this coat drive an annual event, hoping to grow it each year. His college, Cherish Williams, is the mortgage loan originator. She helped Braendel sort through coats and accepted donations throughout the day. Spradlin’s crew offered free hot drinks and treats under their blue tent, which was spared from the wind.

Braendel said that PrimeLending purchased each pumpkin and he wanted to get rid of all of them so he didn’t have to, “feed them to the moose.”

“It’s so they can do a good deed and get something in return,” Braendel said.

Josephson said that one of the biggest need he finds each year is for adult sized coats for boys, and he said most people are focused on the smaller children. He said that these boys across the Valley are losing out, but he will use the donated funds to buy bigger coats.

“Because let’s face it, Alaskan boys are big,” Josephson said

The four-hour coat drive yielded 53 coats and 190 dollars, which Josephson said was pretty good, especially for a first-time event.

“It seems whenever we have a need, the Valley steps up and fills it,” Josephson said.

The Salvation Army came to the Valley in 1989 after establishing itself in the state in 1889, according to Josephson. He said they gathered nearly 400 coats last year, distributing them across the Mat-Su Valley.

As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, Josephson said he is focusing his efforts on the food and growing number of people who need it each year.

The Salvation Army has been working with Wasilla Family Auto, located off Wasilla Fishhook, since Oct. 1 to collect canned food. Donations at the shop have been “slow” Josephson said. The shop will keep collecting canned foods until the end of October.

“We’re heading into Thanksgiving and we need a lot of food this time of year,” Josephson said.

He is also focused on Christmas, particularly the weeks leading up. Soon, there will be an array of volunteers ringing bells at the various grocery stores around the Valley. They begin right after Thanksgiving, according to Josephson. He implored the public to sign up to ring the bells this holiday season.

“We need bell ringers like crazy,” Josephson said.

He said that the money gathered in those iconic red kettles mark the biggest fundraising event of the year here in the Valley and that anyone interested in volunteering can call 907-795-8544.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com