New Canadians, Family of 14 among recipients of winter clothing in Koats for Kids campaign

Koats for Kids gave out 1,000 jackets to those in need in London. CTV London's Brent Lale reports.

Arriving in London, Ont. from Africa earlier this year, Lola Bokonda and his family have never seen snow.

“We got here in April, so we only have six months here,” said Bokonda, who brought his wife and toddler to the Boys and Girls Club of London (BGCL) to receive free winter clothing as part of the Koats for Kids (KFC) campaign.

“It is our first winter and they told me I could come here to pick out a coat for my child. We came here so he could have one coat.”

This program has been going for more than 35 years in the city.

“We have drop off locations, that open their doors for the community to come and drop off coats and we have collection partners,” said Susan McKone, coordinator of the KFK campaign.

“We’ve been overwhelmed with the response this year. We’ve received a lot of cash donations, so we were able to go out and buy new coats. A lot of companies also elicited cash donations from their members and went out and bought new coats.”

The goal was to give away 1,000 jackets and with snow falling Sunday and Monday it couldn’t have been timelier.

Of those 1,000 jackets, nine of them were going to the Walsh Family.

“We got we got 12 (children) altogether and we brought nine today,” said Tommy Walsh.

During their allotted time, the Walsh family used both parents, a grandparent, and helpers from the BGCL to round up a coat, boots, gloves and a hat for every child who constantly grow out of their gear.

“We need a winter coat for the kids, so it’s tough right now because everything’s expensive,” said Courtney Walsh.

“We heard about this on CTV news and came down and are getting the kids winter jackets. Our kids are super excited because they got brand new stuff. It makes you want to cry because it’s places like this (BGCL) that helps us get through.”

McKone and her staff at BGCL had smiles on their faces all day seeing so many people pick out the donated clothing.

Bokonda was picking out snow pants and trying them on his child because he knew the weather was a bout to turn.

“In April it was already very cold,” he said.

“I don’t I don’t know how cold it will be in winter, so we need to be prepared.”