Middletown, CT – With winter around the corner and many families still feeling the financial impact of the pandemic, Best Cleaners is kicking off its 13th annual Coats For Connecticut campaign a week earlier and with an increased focus on children’s coats. The locally-owned dry cleaning and tailoring company is partnering with The Salvation Army to get as many donated coats as possible out to struggling families throughout Connecticut before the first freeze. To do so, the general public is urged to go through their closets; gather up coats that are in good condition but no longer needed; and drop them off at any one of Best’s 14 locations no later than November 12. Children’s coats in all sizes are a bigger need this year. All donated coats will be cleaned for free by Best and delivered to centralized Salvation Army drop sites where volunteers will sort the coats for distribution directly to those in need. Anyone who wants to donate to The Salvation Army for the purchase of a new coat can text COATSCT to 71777 or go online to https://give.salvationarmy.org/Coats-for-CT.

The Coats For Connecticut program was started by Best Cleaners in 2008 with the primary goal of putting its eco-friendly services to work to help those in need get through the cold winter months. Best’s campaign partners have played a critical role in the overall success of the community program. In addition to The Salvation Army, sponsors include Eyewitness News WFSB-TV3, Young’s Printing/Fast Signs, and Two Men And A Truck. Their ongoing support of the campaign continues to increase awareness of the growing need in the community and the relative ease of donating to the program. Since the campaign’s inception, more than 129,000 coats have been collected, cleaned and delivered.

In previous pre-pandemic years, schools, churches, and businesses would conduct their own coat drive and then drop off their donations to Best. With many social-distance protocols still in place and more people working from home this year, groups that have cancelled collections are asked to get the word out that coat donations can be dropped off directly at any Best Cleaners in Berlin, Bristol, Canton, Farmington, Glastonbury, Middletown, North Haven, Old Lyme, Plainville, Rocky Hill, Simsbury, Windsor, and the newly opened West Hartford location on Sedgwick Road. For more information on Coats For Connecticut,, go to www.bestcleaners.com or call 1-888-950-BEST.