St Margaret's News June 2018 | Page 2

Coats for Rough Sleepers You may have noticed a recent item in the Canberra Times reporting on an idea of an ANU law student to collect people’s surplus coats and jackets and place them on racks where people who need a warm coat could just take one. The founder Lauren Dreyar sees this as a way of giving dignity to needy people: they don’t have to go to an op shop nor accept charity from anyone, they can just grab a coat from the rack. She also sees this as a way of limiting landfill for those who want to dispose of excess clothing items. Permanent racks are set up at Woden and Civic Libraries. Racks are also available at various times at the Early Morning Centre at City Uniting, The Red Cross Roadhouse and Safe Shelter at St.Columba’s. The founding group has teamed with the charity GIVIT so it can accept corporate donations. If anybody has any warm coats they would like to donate I would under- take to get them to the Belconnen Community Centre which is a collec- tion point. - Margaret Hunt St Margaret’s News 2 June 2018