The Culver community’s Gift of Warmth announced Tuesday the presentation of winter-warm “hoodies”, free of charge, to each and every student and teacher, grades K-12, in the Culver Community Schools.
The gift totals 900 Under Armour hoodies with the Culver Community Cavalier logo embroidered on the front of each. The gift has been fully funded by cash donations received during the Gift of Warmth’s clothing and fund-raising drives on Labor Day weekend each year.
This year’s Gift of Warmth chairman, Paula Sturman, explained the choice of hoodies: “The entire purpose of the Gift of Warmth is that no child in the Culver Community goes to school cold or returns home to a cold house. We learned that many of the kids prefer thick hoodies to more traditional winter coats, and so we made it happen.”
Carol Zeglis chaired the ‘hoodie committee’ and praised the schools’ teachers and administrators for their support in getting this warm clothing to the students: “Without exception, every teacher we dealt with embraced the idea enthusiastically. The teachers went the extra mile to advise us of their students’ precise sizes. And then the administrators cleared the way for our delivery of the hoodies on Thursday and their presentation to the kids on Friday.”
Superintendent of Schools, KarenShuman, thanked the Gift of Warmth and its patrons for making this happen. She said, “We are so fortunate to live in a community whose members unselfishly take care of school children in so many different ways. Thanks especially to the Gift of Warmth volunteers for this most generous gift to our schools.”
The hoodies arrived en masse at The Depot on Monday, which was made available as a staging area, courtesy of the Culver Lions Club and Mike Overmyer. Volunteers from the Gift of Warmth Steering Committee then sorted the hoodies into boxes according to sizes requested by the teachers for their rooms. Hoodie committee member Lyn Hanley remarked that, “Receiving and sorting 900 hoodies in two days was a gargantuan task, involving two dozen volunteers, scores of boxes, and a whole lot of lifting power!”
The Gift of Warmth extends further thanks to Bob Eberly of Team Sports Inc. and to Mike Wilcox for their generous help in making it possible for the Gift of Warmth to purchase Under Armour hoodies at affordable prices. Bob’s company supplies clothing to the Culver Community Schools athletic teams, and Mike is a ‘lake resident’ active in local affairs and at the Culver Academies.
