MOSES LAKE — Grey and rainy skies blanketed the Columbia Basin on Tuesday. The need for a good, warm winter coat was evident from the moment you stepped out into the elements. For some in the community a good winter coat is hard to come by. The Moses Lake Firefighters Local 1258 helped address the need by delivering winter coats to kids at four schools in Moses Lake on Tuesday through their annual Operation Warm program.

The firefighters handed out about 100 coats to students at Larson Heights, Midway, Knolls Vista and North elementary schools. The kids who received coats were hand-picked by Moses Lake School District staff and identified as needing a good winter coat, explained firefighter Jason Koziol.

Local 1258 funds Operation Warm through various fundraisers during the year, including the Firefighters Breakfast in October, and donations. Koziol said organizations like the Moses Lake Education Association and businesses like Confluence Health donated $1,000 each to the cause and helped make Operation Warm a success.

“We do this fundraiser every year and we always enjoy it. I think the interaction with kids and on top of that, giving to a kid that needs a coat on a day like this makes it worthwhile,” Koziol said.

Operation Warm was founded by Pennsylvania entrepreneur and philanthropist Richard Stanford, who began the outreach in 1998. Operation Warm comes alongside a variety of different foundations, community organizations, corporations and individual sponsors to ensure the American-made coats go to children who need them the most.

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.