Since 2007, we’ve partnered with Clinton Elementary School — just up the street from Hardin Hall on Holdrege Street — for an annual winter donation drive.

The supplies we collect help provide warm coats and clothes, as well as basic toiletries, to the nearly 500 children who attend school there. Ninety-five percent of those students qualify for free- or reduced-price lunches, and a higher percentage of the families’ whose students attend there live in poverty than much of Lincoln, according to the school’s family care coordinator.

In 2018, our Coats for Clinton campaign underwent rebranding when an anonymous donor came forward who would match up to $1,000 in cash donations. That year, Caring for Clinton was born, with two campaigns set over a six-week period. The first, Cash for Clinton, brought in nearly $3,000, and it was followed by the Coats for Clinton campaign, which saw the same number of clothing donations as years prior.

The winter 2019 Caring for Clinton campaign also was expanded to include a second donation drive —this one focused on toiletries and other essentials — and timed for January and February, when available donations to the school typically decrease.