The Mountaintop Rotary Club’s annual coat drive continued its record-setting tradition in 2024. The event brought in 2,976 individual clothing items, which marked a new record according to coat drive organizer Duncan Greenlee.
Members of the Rotary Club were on hand at the Highlands Emergency Council on Thursday to sort the final donations from several of the drop-off boxes that were located around town.
“We didn’t have a record number of coats themselves, but we did set a record for the total number of items donated, which includes coats, sweaters, vests, pairs of gloves, hats and scarves,” Greenlee said. “As items came in, we collected them and made sure they got washed before distributing them to people in need.”
While the coat drive has been a successful event for years, Greenlee noted that the 2025 edition may be handled a little bit differently.
“Highlands is an incredibly giving town, but we can’t expect people to clean out their closets every year and drop off more and more items,” Greenlee said. “So we are looking at ways we can keep the drive going, but maybe in a more targeted way. At the end of the day we want to make sure anyone who needs a warm winter coat, especially any children, has one.”
Greenlee added that the club is working with a nonprofit manufacturing company that makes coats for kids and donates them for distribution by local organizations regarding a possible partnership in 2025.
The Mountaintop Rotary Club meets on Monday nights at 5:30 p.m. at the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation on Main Street. For more information, visit mountaintoprotaryclubhighlands.org.