To the editor:

The Community Health Center of Fort Dodge and Shimkat Motor Co. would like to thank the community for their outpouring of support for the Coats for Kids coat drive. This joint project collects coat donations both new and gently used as well as other winter items to distribute to children in our community who are without a warm coat facing our cold Iowa winter. We asked and our community answered! We were able to provide coats to local schools as well as giving out over 500 coats during our drive-thru distribution day.

We appreciate local businesses providing us with additional drop-off locations to make it easy for the community to contribute. Shimkat Motor Co., Coldwell Banker, Mineral City Mill and Grill, Olde Boston’s, Sports Page and Papa Murphy’s Pizza all participated.

We appreciate businesses, service groups, and individuals who gave financial donations. These donations helped us purchase coats in sizes that are most popular. These donations went a long way to fulfill the need in our community this year.

We appreciate each and every person who purchased a coat or gave a gently used coat. We also received many handmade hats, and would like to thank all of those makers out there!

Our children are lucky to have a community that cares and responds. Way to go!

Community Health Center of Fort Dodge

Shimkat Motor Company