GIVE A KID A COAT!
OUR GREEN INITIATIVESOne Night Without Warmth University of Delaware Event
One Night Without Warmth to highlight struggles of childhood poverty in Delaware
On Feb 22nd, Operation Warm will kick off its first annual, national awareness campaign, One Night Without Warmth, on the campus of University of Delaware with Delaware’s Lieutenant Governor Matthew Denn, Newark City Mayor Vance A. Funk, and Operation Warm founder, Dick Sanford speaking at the event. The national awareness event’s theme is to draw attention to the large numbers of children living in poverty in the United States and to share Operation Warm’s work to alleviate some effects of childhood poverty by providing new, winter coats to children in need.
Nationally, 22% of American children or more than one in five are living in poverty. In Wilmington, not far from the University of Delaware, 30% of children are living in poverty – almost one in three.
The Delaware event will also highlight Operation Warm’s Delaware Challenge and its ambitious goal to provide every elementary school child living in poverty in the state with a new winter coat. The challenges sets out to engage college and high schools students to support Operation Warm as they raise awareness and funds to provide a coat to each of the 17,500 children receiving Free & Reduced Lunch in the state of Delaware.
The University of Delaware event is organized in partnership with the campus Alpha Phi Omega chapter and Circle K student organization. Attendees are encouraged to ‘go coatless for kids’ and to experience the cold without a coat as they consider childhood poverty across the country.
The University of Delaware event will take place at 7pm on Wednesday, 2/22/2012 at the University of Delaware, in Newark, DE in front of Memorial Hall (which is on the North Green between South College Ave. and Academy St. and south of W. Delaware Ave.).
