Enjoying an early Saturday evening sipping wine will mean 1,000 kids this winter will have new coats to keep them warm.
The Lathrop Sunrise Rotary Club is staging its third Wine on the Farm on Saturday, Sept. 9, from 6 to 8 p.m. on the grounds of the home of Ron and Susan Dell’Osso.
The $60 ticket provides an opportunity to sip wine, drink beer, partake of food, listen to music, and enjoy conversation as the Delta breezes start to kick in near the San Joaquín River.
The price of admission is also the ticket for 1,000 youth in Lathrop, Manteca, French Camp, Banta, and the Weston Ranch area of Stockton to get something that few of them have ever had — a new coat.
Last year, the service club raised $30,000 to purchase new coats and school supplies.
The organization works with Manteca Unified and Banta Unified educators to identify students with the greatest need. Those students are then given an invitation to a coat distribution event at Lathrop High in November.
Once there, they can select the new coat they want.
“Some of them have never had a new coat before,” said Kathy Howe, who is co-president of the Rotary Club. “They won’t let anyone remove the label because they are so happy that it (the coat) is new.”
Howe noted that last year as she was placing items in her car at one point during the giveaway, a family with four kids walked by. She overhead one of the boys excitingly tell his mother what a great day it was because the four siblings had never gotten new coats all at the same time.
The club is able to leverage the proceeds from the $60 per ticket affair by working with an organization that buys coats directly from factories for $19 apiece.
For the extra-large sizes they need for some high school kids, they search for the best deals at places like Walmart and Target.
All of the coats have hoods and are designed to help protect students against the elements.
Howe noted that an effort is made to reach out to siblings of students that are part of migrant farmworker families.
At East Union High, which is where the students of farmworkers go for their secondary education, an effort is made to make sure siblings are included in the coat giveaway that aren’t old enough to be in school.
The Rotary also provides coats directly to immigrant farm worker housing complexes in French Camp that are within the school district.
Any leftover jackets are disturbed to area schools to be available when the need arises.
Howe, who is also on the Manteca Unified school board, noted educators have pointed out that needy kids that often feel they are “different” because they wear old hand-me-downs. But when they get a new item of clothing they feel like they belong and it gives a boost to their self-esteem, That in turn often spells over into improved academic performance.
The coat giveaway is just one of a long list of Lathrop Sunrise Rotary projects.
This year the club launched an effort to place American flags along Lathrop streets on key holidays, similar to the Manteca Chamber of Commerce’s Flags Over Manteca effort
They placed 300 flags along Louise Avenue on July 1 — the date of Lathrop’s incorporation as a city — and the Fourth of July.
Flags will also be placed on Sept. 11 to mark the day of the terrorist attacks on the United States.
Howe said the club hopes to eventually have 2,000 flags.
Other endeavors include:
*Working with Manteca Rotary to provide 250 Thanksgiving meals for struggling families in Lathrop.
*Serving breakfast at the Lathrop Senior Canter once a month.
*Scholarships for Lathrop High seniors.
*Sponsoring Interact — teen service clubs — at Lathrop and River Islands high schools.
The 20-member Lathrop Sunrise Rotary Club meets the second Thursday of the month at 6:30 a.m. at Denny’s and the fourth Thursday of the month at 5:30 p.m. at Platano Bar & Grill.
For Wine on the Farm tickets, or information about possibly joining the Lathrop Sunrise Rotary Club, go to LathropSunriseRotary.org or call Kathy Howe for information: 209-825-4738.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
