Office of Community Engagement collects new, gently-used coats for central New Yorkers in need
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Community members can drop off new and gently-used coat donations for Syracuse University’s third annual Operation Orange Warm-Up Coat Drive — an initiative to collect winter jackets for central New York individuals and families in need — at several collection locations across SU’s campus until the end of the week.
Donations to the drive, which has been organized by SU’s Office of Community Engagement and Dr. Ruth Chen, will be given to InterFaith Works of Central New York to distribute to community members in need, including local refugee families and other nonprofit partners.
Marked donation bins were placed outside Schine Student Center, Goldstein Student Center, Hendricks Chapel and the Nancy Cantor Warehouse Tuesday and will be open for drop-off donations until Friday. Fans will also be able to drop off coats in donation bins around the JMA Wireless Dome before the tip-off of the SU men’s basketball game against NC State Saturday night. The bins will be located at gates A-F, M and N.
Cydney Johnson, vice president of community engagement and government relations, is the “main organizing force” behind the event on behalf of SU’s Office of Community Engagement, said Keith Kobland, a media manager with SU News Services. Johnson said she works closely with the university’s community engagement team to organize the drive every year.
“It’s really a good moment because fans are coming up to have a good time but … it also gives Syracuse University a way to be a good neighbor,” Johnson said.
The university began the annual drive three years ago when Chen, professor of practice at SU’s College of Engineering and Computer Science and wife to Chancellor Kent Syverud, partnered with InterFaith Works, Johnson said. Following this, Chen asked the Office of Community Engagement to take on the project.
“Dr. Chen brought together a group of people, and we started discussing ways we might help the community, especially in the cold weather,” Johnson said.
The first Operation Orange Warm-up Coat Drive, held in January 2022, collected not only coats, but also gloves, mittens, hats, boots and scarves.
“That was challenging. We had so many little pieces and then reorganizing and sorting,” Johnson said. “We really focused last year and this year on coats.”
Since then, Chen has continued to support and promote the drive’s efforts, Johnson said.
“The Orange Warm-Up Campaign is one of many expressions of Orange Spirit,” Chen wrote in a statement to The Daily Orange. “Members of the Orange community are encouraged to take actions to support one another in and out of classrooms, campus, and the world.”
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The drive will also feature volunteers from the Black Student Union and Chinese Union, who have planned to send volunteers to facilitate the drive’s efforts, Johnson said. These groups will help collect donations outside the stadium Saturday.
Both organizations will have eight members at each gate before Saturday’s game. The volunteers will oversee coat collections and spread the word, encouraging other students to donate and promote the drive, said Ruohan Xu, president of the Chinese Union.
“We founded our organization to try and build a bridge between international students and the local community,” Xu said. “This is one way we can volunteer and make better connections between each other.”
Johnson said she hopes the drive will support vulnerable communities in central New York while also encouraging SU students’ engagement with the surrounding area.
“It really gives us an opportunity to work with our student partners and let them be part of the larger Syracuse community,” Johnson said.
The coat collection drive would not be successful without the help of student volunteers and InterFaith Works’ dedication to the cause, Johnson said.
InterFaith Works’ mission is to meet the needs of people who are vulnerable, low-income and targets of oppression in their community, many of whom are refugees from parts of Africa, South Asia and the Middle East, President and CEO of Interfaith Works Beth Broadway said.
“We’re very grateful that this is a community that welcomes refugees and one way that people can demonstrate that in a small way is just to give us a coat,” Broadway said.
This agency will settle 895 refugees this year, Broadway said. She also said many of the refugees, regardless of their country of origin, have never needed or worried about needing a heavy winter coat before living in Syracuse.
The goal of the drive is to get between 500 and 800 coats to distribute to various donation centers throughout the Syracuse community, Broadway said.
“People like to get a new coat, but I think it’s also that people get a lot of pleasure out of giving, and that has really stuck with me,” Broadway said.
Broadway said her friendship with Chen and their connection through InterFaith Works was crucial in the formation of the coat drive, as they both believe in “the generosity of the Syracuse University community” and its power to inspire change.
“It is a culmination of empathy, cooperation, and can-do spirit that is the Hallmark of the Orange Community,” Chen wrote.
