This year, ohDEER joined hands with Coats for Kids & Families and Anton’s Cleaners to bring warmth to local Massachusetts families through our first annual coat drive. With the holiday season approaching, our MetroWest, Nashoba Valley, South Shore, Cape Cod, and North Shore locations launched this initiative, all in support of families who need help staying warm this winter. Thanks to our amazing community, we collected over 2,000 coats to donate! Each coat will be cleaned by Anton’s Cleaners and then distributed to local families in need, spreading warmth throughout Massachusetts.
The coat drive wasn’t just a single day of action but the result of a coordinated, team-wide effort to create a meaningful impact. This is how our coat drive unfolded, from the initial spark of an idea to the collection of thousands of warm coats that will soon help families in need.
At ohDEER, we are committed not only to protecting our clients’ properties from deer feeding disease-carrying pests, but also to making a positive difference in our communities. With the winter months approaching, Dave Mulcahy, owner of ohDEER South Shore, proposed a new way to support local families by launching a coat drive. We partnered with Coats for Kids & Families, a well-established organization dedicated to providing winter coats for families in need, and Anton’s Cleaners, a generous company that would ensure each coat was cleaned and ready for its next owner.
Once the initial plan was in place, our development team got to work creating social media posts and an email and postcard for ohDEER customers, explaining the initiative. These materials played a big role in reaching out to our clients, helping to ensure that everyone knew how they could participate. We even created a custom coat drive website landing page with the help of Bright Pink Agency.
The entire ohDEER team was engaged in planning the coat drive, with each member of our operations team playing a part to make sure things ran smoothly.
To make it easy for customers to donate, we planned the collection process around our regular service schedule. As our technicians visited clients for their scheduled services, they left a bag and a postcard at each home. The postcard shared the details of the coat drive, explaining how clients could donate any unwanted winter coats they had. If they wanted to participate, all they had to do was place their coats in the provided bag and leave them outside on the day of their next ohDEER service. This way, participating in the coat drive was as convenient as possible for our customers, and we could maximize the number of coats we collected.
Our technicians took responsibility for both delivering the coat drive materials and collecting the donated coats. Each day brought more coats back to our locations, and the excitement of watching the collection grow was inspiring.
Our technicians are the heart of our daily operations, and they were also the driving force behind this coat drive. Each technician played a key role, delivering the bags and postcards, collecting coats on their service routes, and making sure that every coat was delivered to Anton’s Cleaners.
The simplicity of our collection method also resonated with customers, who expressed their appreciation for the opportunity to contribute to a cause so easily. Many shared stories with our technicians about why they were inspired to donate, from cleaning out closets to passing down coats their children had outgrown. Every interaction underscored the spirit of community that defines ohDEER’s work and mission.
We were thrilled to see our customers respond with so much generosity. The number of coats we collected exceeded our expectations, reaching over 2,000! Each of these coats will be cleaned by Anton’s Cleaners and then given to families in need through Coats for Kids & Families. We’re honored to be a part of this initiative, knowing that our contribution will make a difference in the lives of local families this winter. It’s truly a testament to the caring spirit of our community and our customers, who were eager to support those in need.
One of ohDEER founder Kurt Upham’s longtime customers donated 24 coats!! A single preschool donated the collection of coats in the photo below to ohDEER South Shore. This is one of the schools ohDEER South Shore sprays for free, as a part of another community initiative known as the T.I.C.K. program.
Reflecting on the success of this coat drive, we’re filled with gratitude. This project wasn’t just about gathering coats; it was about coming together as a community to make a difference. Every person involved, from our development team and technicians to our wonderful customers, contributed to creating a meaningful impact.
As the collected coats are now on their way to Anton’s Cleaners for final preparations, we can’t help but feel proud of our team and the community we serve. The collective effort of our locations at MetroWest, Nashoba Valley, South Shore, Cape Cod, and North Shore has proven that small actions, when multiplied by a caring community, create big changes.
We are grateful to our customers who made this coat drive possible by donating their coats and trusting ohDEER to deliver them to families who need them. Your kindness and generosity will make the winter a little brighter and warmer for families across our region. At ohDEER, we are proud to protect your properties, and we are equally proud to support our communities through initiatives like this.
Thank you for believing in our mission and for joining us in this endeavor. We look forward to continuing this tradition in the future and finding new ways to give back to the communities that mean so much to us. Together, we can make a difference one coat at a time.
If you would still like to get involved, you can drop off coats at any Anton’s Cleaners, Enterprise Bank or Jordan’s Furniture until January 5th.
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