Former Coronation Street-star Tina O’ Brien has donned a colourful costume coat and popped into her local primary school to raise awareness for a Manchester-based charity which helps families living in poverty.
Tina launched the event by wearing the coat to get kids thinking about creative entries for a coat colouring competition which Arndale shopping centre is running for schools, and also participated in the drive last year by donating her daughter Scarlett’s coat.
The ‘Little Coat Big Coat’ campaign by Wood Street Mission, a charity which collects unwanted coats so that families can stay warm in the winter, visited Didsbury Church of England Primary School to urge them to donate their old school coats.
So far, the charity has already helped more than 2,600 children this year with free clothing and has helped 1,895 families across all its services this year with numbers continuing to rise.
Jan O’Connor, Manager at Wood Street Mission, said: “We are delighted to be working with Manchester Arndale again this year to help secure more donations of children’s coats.
“We simply never have enough coats to give each child we help one. It was fantastic to have Tina support this new initiative to involve local schools and we hope all the children enjoy designing a coat, whilst parents help support less fortunate children with donations of unwanted pre-loved kids’ coats.”
The charity had been helping families afflicted by poverty for more than 140 years and are hoping that by speaking to young children, parents will rummage through old and unwanted clothes to help those in need.
Headteacher of Didsbury C of E Primary School, Mr Whitehead, said: “Any campaign to help underprivileged children is a fantastic idea in my book.
“The coat appeal is a great way to recycle unwanted coats and also makes the children realise how fortunate they are when some children don’t even have a coat to wear.”
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