SWEETWATER COUNTY — This year marks the 30th year of Coats for Kids, which helps to ensure kids across Sweetwater County have a coat for the cold winter months.

Coats for Kids is a TRN Media promotion that started when a few schools in Green River expressed a need for coats. Sweetwater County did not have a coat bank when Coats for Kids started, which resulted in TRN Media storing all of the donated coats at its radio station on Shoshone Avenue.

“Some schools had come to us and asked about getting coats because they had kids coming to school with no coats on. And, and there really wasn’t a coat bank at that time, so we decided to see if we could do something to get some coats,” Al Harris, owner of TRN Media said.

The promotion has grown over the years, with thousands of coats being donated over the past three decades. Harris believes the number of coats donated is close to 4,000, with 100 coats being dropped off just this past week at the Rock Springs Housing Authority.

“This is going to be a real good year, too,” Harris said. “We’ve taken over a hundred coats to the coat bank already, and we have another $900 here in contributions, so we’re going to be able to do a lot of coats this year.”

The reason for the continuation of Coats for Kids is simple: there’s a need, and TRN Media is able to help. Harris recalled a moment in the promotion’s history that still stands out to him today as the reason why Coats for Kids is so important.

“We had a family in here one evening, three or four kids in the family, trying to find coats that would fit. And this boy, he was nine or ten years old, and I found a brand new coat that just fit him. He loved the color, and he was so excited, and I mean the look on his face was just great. And I said, ‘before you go, let me cut the tags off,’ and he said, ‘please don’t cut the tags off.’ And I said, ‘well, why is that?’ And this boy said, “I’ve never had a new coat, and I want everybody to know this coat is new.’ I still get choked up over this, and this was years and years ago,” Harris said. “At that point, I knew that these coats were need, and we needed to do more and we needed to keep doing it.”

Harris said from then on, they started taking the coats to the coat bank for distribution and continued to raise the money to buy coats.

“At this point, this program provides more coats than than anything for the coat bank,” Harris said. “They rely on this thing, so that’s the reason we keep doing it.”

The community can help provide coats for Sweetwater County children with a $5 donation. In return, donors receive a special commemorative Christmas tree ornament. Each donation goes directly toward providing coats to kids. The Rock Springs Housing Authority said larger sizes of coats are needed the most, as many of the donations are in smaller children’s sizes. Older children will come to the coat bank in need of a coat but won’t find anything due to the lack of larger-sized coats.

While TRN Media will purchase some larger sized coats, if anyone would like to purchase and donate coats, those larger, adult-sized coats are the most sought after.

For more information on how to contribute to Coats for Kids, click here. For those in need of coats, visit the coat bank at the Rock Springs Housing Authority, 233 C St, Rock Springs.