Whitefield Academy kindergartners collected 300 coats during Megan’s Closet Coat Drive, a service project held each year since 2009.
The coat drive was started in memory of Megan Gaddis, a kindergarten teacher at Park Street Elementary School who died in 2008 from a rare neurological disease. Megan loved children and believed strongly in coming alongside others to help them at their point of need.
“Megan was a new kindergarten teacher and she spent quite a bit of time at Whitefield learning about teaching from former kindergarten teacher Jeannie East,” said Marcia Gaddis, Megan’s mother. “When Megan passed away, Jeannie wanted to do something in remembrance of her kind and giving spirit.”
Marcia Gaddis previously worked at Whitefield as family relations coordinator and has recently returned as the alumni and special events manager in the advancement department. She wrote a book about God’s provision during the dark time of her daughter’s illness and death called When God Comes Near, which is available in the Whitefield library.
Gaddis also wrote a children’s book called Coats for Winter to enhance the coat drive project. It weaves the story of three city children, Meg, Bea, and Owie, who visit their grandparent’s farm in the country. When their grandmother suggests that the trio collect coats for needy children, they make their way through the community collecting the coats while meeting many unusual characters.
“They meet characters like Mr. Hap, a farmer, Miss Ella, who spends all her time on the phone, and Mrs. Mary, who grows lots of vegetables” said Gaddis. “All these characters are based on real people I knew growing up on our farm on Longbranch Road in Kentucky. In the end, they return to the city to give away the coats”
Each year, during Megan’s Closet Coat Drive, Gaddis takes time to read the book to the Whitefield kindergartners. The kindergartners appeal to the entire Lower School community who then donate gently used coats for other children. To date, the drive has collected approximately 2,000 coats.
The coats are donated to Feed My Lambs, a Marietta-based ministry which partners with local businesses organizations, and area churches to open Christian schools in economically impoverished areas in order to empower at-risk children spiritually, academically, physically, and socially.