As temperatures drop, over 1,500 Washtenaw County children are staying warm thanks to the Kiwanis-sponsored “Warm the Children” program, led by Mary Stewart and a dedicated team of volunteers.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

By the time the first snowflakes fell in mid-November, 1,537 local children were wearing new warm clothes provided by the Kiwanis-sponsored Warm the Children program.

“This winter season, we’re clothing more children than we have in many years,” says program manager Mary Stewart. “The children we serve are from all over Washtenaw County—Ann Arbor, Milan, Dexter, Saline, Chelsea, and Ypsilanti, as well as the townships—and the need is growing.”

Warm the Children is funded solely by goodwill offerings from members of the community. Each year’s donations determine the budget for the following winter season.

Starting in September, Warm the Children runs ads in the Ann Arbor Observer, reminding readers of children’s needs within this community, and the check-out counters at the Kiwanis Thrift Shop feature a giving tree with paper mittens suggesting a donation in any numeration.

Stewart not only does all the administrative work for Washtenaw’s 78 schools and social service agencies, but also keeps track of an additional 27 Warm the Children projects around the country—although Washtenaw’s is the largest program.

“I build on relationships in the agencies, but every year it’s a challenge to identify school contacts, since they change each year,” she says. She forms a budget for vouchers based on the previous year’s donations and the anticipated needs of local children. Then she designs the vouchers and distributes them to agencies, social workers, or guardians. “Keeping up with the demand for Warm the Children is a full-time job once school starts,” Stewart says. She works five days a week in her office in a corner of the Kiwanis Center administrative offices.

Then she coordinates volunteers to help the children (accompanied by a parent, guardian, or social worker) on their shopping trip for coats, mittens, hats, and clothes. “Many of these children are from Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian, Arabic and Chinese speaking families,” she says. Since 2012, more than 120 volunteers have shopped with local children. “One woman does between sixty and seventy families herself.”

For the third year, Warm the Children has partnered with J.C. Penney, where the volunteers meet their youthful clients (between three and sixteen years of age, and as many as four in a one family) to shop for warm bargains, this year with a $90 voucher per child. In some cases, Stewart also refers the children’s families to the Kiwanis voucher program, which offers needy families a day to shop free of charge for clothing and household goods.

For Mary Stewart, Warm the Children is a legacy program close to home. In the 1970s, her father, Mack Stewart, was working for the Torrington News in Connecticut, when he drove past a school bus stop on a chilly late-fall day and noticed children who had no coats, hats, or mittens. He vowed to remedy the situation, and launched his newspaper’s Warm the Children campaign. Then he began reaching out to newspapers all over the country, suggesting they run a Warm the Children drive.

The Ann Arbor News answered his challenge. So did other newspapers. But as the industry began facing hard times in the 2000s, many newspapers folded. In some cases, local clubs and foundations stepped in to adopt the project. Mary Stewart became involved with Warm the Children in 2012, but when the newspaper went digital five years later, she approached the Kiwanis Club of Ann Arbor, which agreed to sponsor the program and give her office space. That year, they helped clothe 1,600 children with warm clothes.

“Other Warm the Children groups are reporting what we see here: the numbers of children in need are rising,” she says. “Ours is the largest program, serving the most children, but we all share the same commitment: to keep our children warm.”

For further information, or to donate to Warm the Children, contact Mary Stewart at mkcstewart61@gmail.com.