Winter Clothing Drives - DC Satsang

Winter Clothing Drives  - DC Satsang

The winter of ‘22-’23 witnessed marked temperature fluctuations on the east coast and in the Washington DC area - more than a few blustery, chilly days were among these! Accordingly, two clothing drive sevas came to fruition and these are described below, the first of which was organized by AYUDH.

AYUDH Clothing Drive

Om Namah Shivaya!

AYUDH DC collected 800+ gently used clothing items including winter coats, tops, dresses, ties, baby clothes, shoes and more! Members sorted the clothing by gender, age and category to prepare for distribution to the LAWS domestic violence shelter, Loudoun Homeless Shelter, Salvation Army Ashburn donation center and Door of Hope USA. The team distributed the items based on what each shelter wants and/or accepts. Across these four shelters, all items collected found a place to be donated!

AYUDH DC would like to wholeheartedly thank the DC Satsang community for their generous contributions and support! They could really see the love and care Satsang members put into preparing the items. Big thank you to DC Satsang organizers for helping AYUDH DC mobilize. Members also collected donations from their schools and neighborhoods.

Winter Coat Drive for Elementary School Children

The children of Kemp Mill Elementary School in Silver Spring, Maryland are not assured of a warm winter coat to wear during the sometimes frigid winter days of the mid-atlantic region of the east coast. Whether it is while walking to school (should they live nearby) or when outside playing, it may be a matter of good fortune that they are wearing a well fitting warm coat, but not an assurance. They attend a title I school, which receives federal funding and extra staff resources to support the needs of a disadvantaged community. A dual language program is in place to ensure classes are taught in Spanish and English, as many are from immigrant families.

It is against this backdrop that the DC satsang has been conducting a winter coat drive for several years to support these children, ages 4-10. This year, 190 clothing items were collected, with half being coats and the remainder comprising sweatshirts, sweatpants and leggings. Many were newly purchased items and some were previously owned. Clothes were laundered when required and one otherwise usable coat with a torn liner was sewn back to donatable status. A wish list provided by the school guided procurement to match gender, size and quantity requests.

Our school (teacher) liaison commented that it is a project that she had dreamt of having for 25 years! It is our privilege to participate in bringing this dream to reality.