NJ State Trooper Starts Coat Drive for Kids

**Buttercup** · 11-14-09, 11:59 PM

Carla Thomas remembers walking past a bank on South Orange Avenue as a young high school student in Newark. The air was so cold, she said, that some three decades later she remembers the 27-degree temperature that was written on a display.

That memory was stirred on another icy day in November 2003, said the New Jersey State Police sergeant, who often went without a coat as a child. And with that, she called a social worker in Newark to see if there were any children with a similar need.

"I just thought back to that day and picked the phone up," said Thomas, of Piscataway, "just to see if there was somebody out there that I could help, not knowing that the demand was greater than I thought."

The phone call has turned into an annual coat drive, which Thomas organizes, at South 17th Street School in Newark and in other urban districts. Staff and students at the school thanked her recently by making her an honorary principal for the day.

Coat drive started by state trooper from Piscataway helps keep kids warm | mycentraljersey.com | MyCentralJersey.com