The Bundle Up Project

Give a cild warm clothes today...

Thank You So Much For Your Support!

-The Bundle Up Project

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-We would like to thank you again for you kind support and know that you are making a dif-ference in a child’s life, as well as a smile.

The Bundle Up Project

Mission: To provide resources in order to ensure any CHILD in need of a warm winter coat is provided with one.

Vision: To provide resources in order to ensure ANYONE who needs a warm winter coat is provided with one.

Background Information The Bundle Up Project is a lo-cal non-profit organization serving Escambia, Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties that assist in the donation of “gently-loved” coats for chil-dren. BUP helps individuals, groups, companies and organizations in Northwest Florida collect coats and deliver them to local agencies that distribute them free, to people in need. Since its inception in 2007, more than 5,000 coats have been collected and distributed through activities organized by the BUP, av-eraging approximately 1,250 coats per year.

Serving as the conduit, the BUP provides a variety of ser-vices that help facilitate coat drives, including:• Resources to help individuals, groups, companies and organizations fa-cilitate coat drives to their internaland/or external audiences • Educate the public on the need that local children have for a warm win-ter coat and how even such a smallexpense is not possible for many in the community.

A few statistics to consider: • The recession has wiped out up-wards of 8 million jobs since it began in late 2007 - Source: (2010,April). Why the Unemployment Rate Re-fuses to Budge. U.S. News & World Re-port. • 1 in 3 homeless persons is a child under the age of 18 - Source: National Coalition for the Homeless.

The founding board member of BUP is a local elementary school teacher named Shirley Taylor. Over the years, Taylor has seen hundreds of children whose families cannot af-ford warm winter coats. Often times her students would come to class in over-sized coats with broken zip-pers or coats that didn’t offer pro-tection against the elements. While Taylor and her fellow teachers pro-vide used coats for children when the need arose, many students were too shy or too proud to accept the loan of a coat. In addition, children are taught in school that the shar-ing of clothing that can also lead to spreading germs and illnesses.

Eventually the BUP would like to collect coats for displaced adults, se-nior citizens, the handicapped and those living on a fixed income as a long-term goal.The BUP is run by a totally volunteer Board of Directors; does note have any paid employees and has no of-fice or facility to operate from. Cur-rently they only have a logo (noted in this document) and up until this point has relied on informal emails and direct mail letters to local busi-nesses encouraging them to have coat drives or “sponsor” the efforts of the organization in some way.