Cherokee County Homeless Veterans Program

10,000 Coats given to Veteran and non-Veterans ahead of the holidays by a Great Team

Several years ago as we started the "Adopt a Vet" program we ran into a Navy Veteran and his family who we were looking to support for the Christmas Holidays. The letter we got from the young daughter once we read it started this whole program. In her letter to us she mentioned that she only wanted two items for Christmas, 1 - picture of her to give to her aging grandmother and 2- a new winter coat as she never had one.

Ice would have melted had we been up north after reading this. Ever since that letter our program with our partners at Arrow Exterminators and the GA Pest Vets organization had done a winter coat drive to obtain coats for Veterans, Veteran outreach programs, schools, and non-Veteran groups who need coats.

Last year, 2024 our program with our partners donated 8,000 coats to those in need to include the VA Homeless Program, two Atlanta Veteran outreach programs, Noth Ga Veterans, Ft Eisenhower, and several groups helping those in Tennessee and North Carolina who had lost everything due to the Hurricanes.

This year, Chad from Arrow set the bar at 10,000 coats and I was not sure it could be done. Covering 12 states and partnering with other Pest Control companies and our program we achieved the goal.

We start the collecting in early September and run through December 1st. Before mid December we sort all the coats and other items that were donated and get them out to the organizations that had requested them. Many orders came to us in the hundreds and one came in for over 4,000. We even though we gave out the 10,000 we still came up about 500 short as we had one group we could not fill and we got a late request from another group.

IF you still have coats and want to donate them we would love for you to drop them by the American Legion Canton Post 45 at 160 McClure St. I want to thank all those that donated as the coats are now being given to those in need ahead of the Christmas cold.