December 19, 2018

Students receive new winter coats at ‘Operation Warm: New Coats for Kids’ event

By Thom Carroll
PhillyVoice Contributor

Thom Carroll/Philadelphia

Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel helps a first grader at the annual "Operation Warm: New Coats for Kids" event, Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2018.

Every child should have a warm winter coat during the cold winter months, but many kids from the city’s poorest neighborhoods go without. But thanks to a partnership established in 2012 between Operation Warm and members of the Philadelphia Firefighters & Paramedics Union Local 22, nearly 600 children at John Marshall Elementary School will be given a brand-new winter coat this holiday season.

To mark this special occasion, Philadelphia Firefighters & Paramedic Union Local 22 President Ed Marks and members, City Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez and the staff of Operation Warm presented dozens of first grade children with new winter coats this afternoon at the North Philadelphia elementary school. The remainder of the coats will be delivered to students after the holiday break.

Here are some highlights from the event:

Thom Carroll/Philadelphia

First graders at John Marshall Elementary School look at a pile of new coats minutes before they were distributed to them.

Thom Carroll/Philadelphia

Firefighter Lamont Gore hands out firefighter helmets to children to children at John Marshall Elementary School.

Thom Carroll/Philadelphia

Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel helps a first grader at the annual “Operation Warm: New Coats for Kids” event, Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2018.

Thom Carroll/Philadelphia

Firefighter Edward Mulholland of Ladder 10 helps hand out new winter coats to kids at the John Marshall Elementary School in Philadelphia.

Thom Carroll/Philadelphia

Liutenant George Cooper helps a student choose a new winter coat during the “Operation Warm: New Coats for Kids” event, Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2018.

Thom Carroll/Philadelphia

Chuck McQuilkin, Vice President of the Local 22 firefighters union helps a first grader at the annual “Operation Warm: New Coats for Kids” event, Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2018.