New or like-new winter coats – excluding leather and suede – will be collected from Nov. 5 to 15 around the area.
The collection hours at the East Brunswick Municipal Complex, 1 Jean Walling Civic Center Dr., will be weekdays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and at the Recreation and Parks Department, 344 Dunhams Corner Road, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Township offices will be closed Nov. 6 and 12.
Other collection sites are the Raritan Valley YMCA, 144 Tices Lane, weekdays from 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple, 222 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick, weekdays from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The seventh annual Community Coat Drive is supported by the East Brunswick Education Association, the Educational Support Professional Council, the East Brunswick Public Schools, East Brunswick Mayor Brad Cohen, Public Works Director Daniel Losik, and Marc Coleman, coordinator of the Department of Recycling and Solid Waste, which provides containers for the collection sites.
The coats will be dry cleaned by students in the School of Career Development on the East Brunswick Campus of the Middlesex County Vocational and Technical Schools.
Coats will be distributed beginning the week of Dec. 3 by Lunch Break, a nonprofit that serves the needy, to students at the Job Corps site in Edison, to clients of the Rescue Mission of Trenton, and to other local people in need. The youth group of Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick will distribute coats to homeless men and women in New York City on Jan. 20.
For more information, contact Shari Levy at 732-995-2313.