FARMINGTON – University of Maine at Farmington’s Sweatt-Winter Early Care and Education Program children deliver outgrown but usable warm winter items to the Old South Church Coat Closet this morning. Accompanied by their teachers, the children pulled wagons laden with coats, snowsuits, mittens, boots and hats across Main Street to the coat closet, a public service program of Old South Church.
For the past month, the Sweatt-Winter teachers and parents have used the winter item collection as a learning opportunity for the children, as they discuss the importance of helping others by sharing their out-grown items and enhance their math skills by sorting and grouping the coats, and making charts and graphs of the different types of items.
“It’s important for the children to see how the coats will be used,” said Beth Hatcher, UMF assistant professor of early childhood education and campus liaison to the children’s programs. “By collecting and delivering the coats themselves, these young children will learn firsthand the importance of sharing our resources with others.”
The winter items will be distributed during the Care and Share Food Pantry Thanksgiving Basket distribution in Fairbanks. The Old South Church Coat Closet is open to the public during monthly community luncheons on the second Saturday of each month.
