Iff iffirm, AW Y ;

GIVINGN
LEARNING

Annual coat drive has been teaching tzedakah for more than 10 years.

"I know that if people would
just take a few moments to
open their hearts and then
open their closets, we could
have more than 1,000 coats."

— Steven Tapper

Adena Kass,'13,.ofHiintin' on `Woads ulia Friedman, 12, ofWest
Bloomfield; Haley Gordon, 13, of131Oomeld Hills; and Enzi?y Rosen 13,
est Bloomfield gather around one o several bins made for the coat
drive.atI-141 Da boa.

SHARON LUCKERMAN

Staff Writer

rustrated by the growing stockpile of his
family's outgrown clothing, Steven
Tapper of West Bloomfield gathered the
items and took them to the Baldwin
Church Center in Pontiac.
As he was leaving the church, he noticed people
picking through the bags of donated clothing. He
wished he could do more. While he was talking to
the person in charge, a woman approached and
asked for a warm coat. Her landlord had locked
her out and she was cold.
"I was determined to do even more than what
we've done before," Tapper says, inspired by the
woman's need.

For 10 years, associates at Tapper's Diamonds
and Fine Jewelry in West Bloomfield have spon-
sored a coat drive. This year, with the help of
Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit in
Farmington Hills and the Jewish Academy of
Metropolitan Detroit in West Bloomfield, Tapper
hopes to collect more than 1,000 coats — 350
coats more than last year. More than 6,000 have
been collected to date, he said.
"I know that if people would just take a few
moments to open their hearts and then open their
closets, we could have more than 1,000 coats,"
Steven Tapper said.
"This is an unusually needy year," says Lois
Gerenraich, director of Orchards Children's
Services (OCS), a Southfield agency that will
receive some of the coats. A private child welfare

agency, OCS serves 4,000 children each year in the
tri-county area.
"This year, local charities are victims of the
Sept. 11 tragedy," Gerenraich says. "Many contri-
butions are going to national charities and not to
community agencies. We're not receiving the
amount we're use to. Our clothing corner is low
this year, and the coat drive is an essential one in
Michigan."
Many of the abused or foster care children who
come to her agency often arrive only with the
clothing they're wearing or what they can fit in a
duffel bag.
"We need much and soon," she says.
Eighth-grade students from Hillel Day School
and the Jewish Academy have taken charge of the
drive.

tIN

11/9

2001

39

