Madison Students Collect Coats for Jersey Cares Drive

The Jersey Cares Coat drive is up and running in Madison, with borough students continuing an annual collection that brought in more than a thousand coats each of the past two years.

Two Madison High School students, Elena and Gus Haralampoudis, and the Madison High School Interact club, are partnering with Jersey Cares to set new records for coat collection and distribution in the state.

Realizing unemployment, low wages and increased living costs mean many people need help, the students are asking residents to look through their closets to find old coats that should be recycled to needy individuals.

Last year, Madison's collection site at the Madison Area YMCA took in more than 1,300 coats—100 more coats than the previous year.

Jersey Cares distributed close to 30,000 coats by the end of December 2012, so the Madison coats were a large portion of the drive, organizers said.

Jersey Cares plans to collect and distribute more than 60,000 gently used winter coats to men, women and children in need throughout New Jersey for its 18th annual drive. Jersey Cares has collected, sorted and distributed more than 400,000 coats to New Jersey residents through the drive over the years.

The Madison coat bin is in the lobby of the Madison Area YMCA until February. Organizers said the YMCA has been an irreplaceable partner in the drive.

The Madison YMCA is located at 111 Kings Road. Hours are 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday to Saturday, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.