AURORA (KDVR) — A U.S. Navy veteran heard about the Coats for Colorado campaign and wanted to donate more than 10 of his own coats. He does not drive, however, and that posed a bit of a problem.
U.S. Navy veteran Robert “Jack“ Wals loved his job aboard the USS Sterett. He ran the ship’s company store.
“It was fun. The guys knew you had the stuff,“ Wals said.
Jack was honorably discharged from the Navy because of chronic heart problems.
“I had a murmur, bad murmur, that’s why they went in and done the surgery,“ Wals said about his dilated cardiomyopathy diagnosis. “The right side has to do all the work, basically.”
When Wals heard about the Coats for Colorado campaign, he had an idea.
“When I see them, went to the homeless, I thought that would be great, and I had so many but I didn’t know if you would come and get them,“ Wals said.
Well, we would and we did. Because Wals does not drive, he called us to help, and it was our honor.
We called Kasina Swartz at Dependable Cleaners. She was more than happy to help out.
“I am so grateful to Jack for these coats because look at this — this is a Columbia jacket. Look how heavy this coat is,“ Swartz said.
This year‘s goal for Coats for Colorado is to collect 40,000 coats — and each one counts.
FOX31, Colorado’s Very Own Channel 2 and Dependable Cleaners will collect coats through Nov. 30 at all Dependable Cleaners locations.