Rotarians embrace local need, sort 705 winter coats

Thirty-four boxes containing 705 winter coats were stacked in Tassi Brautigam’s basement in Campton Hills, ready to be opened so they could be tagged, sorted and given to local schools, the Tri-City Salvation Army and Lazarus House, a homeless shelter in St. Charles.

They call it Koats for Kids.

On Tuesday morning, about a dozen members of the Batavia Rotary and the St. Charles Breakfast Rotary began tearing open the boxes and sorting the coats – by color and size and according to the school or nonprofit that requested their help.

“This is our 14th year,” Brautigam said. “When it first started, it was the Salvation Army that needed coats. Those Angel Tree tags – almost every one said they needed a coat. That first year, we gave away 85 coats and we thought we were doing great. ... Last year was our biggest year, 752 coats.”

Michele Kinzler of St. Charles and Dave Brown of Batavia worked together to sort out the boy colors from the girl colors into neat piles.

If the name is familiar, Brown was on the Batavia City Council and most recently served on the Kane County Board.

Sky blue, royal blue, gray, teal and black for boys.

Dark pink, medium pink, bright pink, red and purple-pink for girls.

Also sorting coats were Sue Peterson of St. Charles, Karen Clutter and Chuck Miles of Geneva, Barbara Roos of North Aurora, Margaret Blighton, Tom Von Lunen and Marge Brown, all of Batavia.

Brautigam showed a list from a St. Charles school listing coats, sizes and genders.

“We have no idea who the people are, they (the coats) are just tagged or with a first name,” Brautigam said. “Obviously, we in Rotary – we don’t have the ability to vet who needs these. ...The school districts send in their requests, I look at those requests and order boxes of coats.”

Other coats – toddler sizes and XXL sizes – they buy at Costco, she said.

The coats cost $17,000, donated anonymously through Rotary members, she said.

FedEx pays for the shipping costs to send the coats, she said.

The Rotarians also saved all the plastic bags the coats came in to be recycled with the St. Charles Kiwanis, another service club. The Kiwanis gives the plastic to TREX Plastic Recycling, which recycles the plastic into boards for benches, she said.

Getting the coats didn’t always go smoothly, she said, as back in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic put a damper on the project.

“We couldn’t get anything,” Brautigam said. “The supply chains were broken. And through a Rotarian, we were introduced to Operation Warm.”

That Rotarian was Rich Lalley of Winnetka, who worked at Operation Warm. He connected the St. Charles and Batavia Rotarians so they could get coats through that nonprofit, Brautigan said.

Because Operation Warm’s coats cost $25, Brautigam said it allows them to buy so much more.

“People seek our Rotary Club, and they say, ‘I have these people, can you help me?’ If funds are available – yes – we will do our best to help those in the community,” Brautigam said. “We work with World Relief immigrants, and we work through the jail to help some people who are in programs, lived on porches and lived in cars. ... After Lazarus House and schools and the Salvation Army, we will help whoever we can help.”