In their element: Jefferson students create Coat Cart to keep kids warm during recess

When some kids were outside at recess without coats or gloves on chilly days, Jefferson Elementary fifth-grader Bennet Robertson took notice. She recruited her friend Frida Sanchez to help her create a Coat Cart to provide warm clothing that students could borrow to go outside and play.

Principal Brent Perdue said Bennet sent him a written proposal detailing her idea, complete with a hand-drawn map showing where the coat rack could be placed.

“They had seen kids cold,” he said. “Basically, it’s a borrow for the day. The need they were filling were the kids who just didn’t have it that day.”

It’s not unusual for the weather to seem nice in the morning, then turn chilly later in the day. If a student decided to leave their coat home or simply forgot it, they were cold during recess. Bennet said she was inspired to start the Coat Cart after she saw the display of lost and found items that were destined to be donated to Goodwill.

Jefferson Elementary, like all schools, has a lost and found full of coats, hats and gloves. Some items are never claimed, so every so often the items are donated to Goodwill. Things destined for donation are always put out on display one last time to give students a chance to claim what is theirs. Robertson thought that instead the items could be put on a rack for students to borrow when needed.

She thought writing the principal a letter about her idea was the best way to make it happen. It was not her first letter to a principal.

“In third grade, I wrote a letter to the principal about the start time at our school,” she said.

Her letter at the time got a response, but it wasn’t the one she was hoping for.

“He doesn’t have that power, apparently,” she said.

Perdue met with Bennet, then took her idea to the school board for approval. Once it was given the green light, it was up to Bennet to put everything together, so she recruited Frida.

“It sounded interesting,” Frida said. “It also sounded like a fun project to work on.”

The duo ordered and put together two coat racks to hang coats and snow pants on. They decorated boxes to hold the hats and gloves and got a big blue bucket to hold the used items. They made a flyer asking for donations that was put in the school newsletter and also one that was posted on the school’s Facebook page.

Perdue said the school did not try to take over the project because they wanted the students to be able to create the program.

“They really did everything themselves,” he said.

Bennet scheduled volunteers who will empty the used item bin and take the contents to the office as well as hang freshly washed items.

Since head lice are a concern in schools, items like hats and coats have to be washed between uses. Once items are put in the used bucket, staff members take turns taking everything home to wash it, Perdue said. It’s their way of supporting the project that Bennet and Frida created, he said.

Though the Coat Cart just opened for business this month, after the worst of the cold winter weather, it is being used. On a recent day the used item bucket was filled to the brim.

“We’ve seen a couple kids come and grab things,” Frida said.

In addition to organizing the Coat Cart, the two are also making plans about who will take over the program next year once they have gone to middle school. They made a presentation to the school’s Leadership Club about it continuing.

“We brought this to them,” Bennet said. “I think it’s going to be back next year.”

In a pinch, they’re both ready to recruit their own people.

“We both have siblings in the third grade,” Frida said.

But before they go, they’d like to create bigger and better boxes to hold the hats and gloves, since they’re already showing wear.

“It’s kind of easy to mess them up,” Frida said. “We need bigger boxes.”

Perdue said he’s proud of the work the two have done and impressed with the simplicity of Robertson’s idea.