MANCHESTER, NH — ‘Twas the week before Thanksgiving, and Operation Warm was about to complete its annual mission: Delivering coats to kids in need across the city.
Think Santa, only it’s a bunch of jolly old elves dressed as firefighters, in a sleigh – only it’s a 50,000-pound fire engine. And instead of toys, there are boxes of shiny new outerwear.
This wasn’t the first time I’d been called on to bear witness to the effort, undertaken annually by Manchester Professional Fire Fighters Association Local 856 and funded by the generous donations that pour in from our community. This year 1,182 new winter coast were distributed – 800 to kids in 13 city schools, 382 to participants in afterschool programs including The Way Home and Bring It!
Fundraising begins each year in earnest the day after the coats are delivered, making sure there will be enough coats to go around the following winter. In all, Operation Warm has provided 3,844 colorful coats to kids who otherwise might face the cold in an ill-fitting jacket, or no jacket at all.
This year a lead sponsor of the effort was Brady Sullivan Properties, doubling down on the warm feeling Shane Brady and Arthur Sullivan got last year when they donated $10,000 to boost the fundraising effort to its goal. This year Arthur Sullivan led the charge by being one of the first to deliver a check, another $10,000, to the gang at Central Station. It was an act of giving that inspired several others from the community to donate to the cause resulting in more than $23,000 raised for 2019.
When I arrived at Gossler Park Elementary School on Nov. 22 I wasn’t expecting to see Arthur Sullivan. But he was there, ready to assist firefighters in sizing up the kiddos and fitting them in a coat that suited them. There was genuine excitement among the kids as they picked coats in their favorite colors from the boxes and slid their arms through the sleeves, stretching their arms out sidewards to see if there was room to grow.
And there was genuine compassion among the volunteer crew of outfitters, including Sullivan, who thought better of green coat he’d assisted a boy named William with, suggesting a larger version in blue. Same reaction for Firefiguther Mike Benoit when he helped a boy named Carter with a coat in his favorite color, red, and when Lt. Chad Gamache assisted a little girl name Prana who was percolating with pride as he zipped her up in a pink-and-purple jacket.