MOSES LAKE — Winters in the Basin are no laughing matter. The wind, the freezing temperatures and the occasional snow make a good coat invaluable for keeping out the chill. Good coats are not always in every child’s closet, and some kids every year are left facing the elements unprotected.

Or rather, they would be if it weren’t for the Rotary Club of Moses Lake, which has held its annual Coats for Kids drive for the last 23 years. Coats for Kids aims to ensure that no child has to go to school cold and made some strides toward that goal with the program’s giveaway Saturday morning.

“We ask businesses to put a box out in September and collect for six to eight weeks and pick them up every week,” said Rotarian Roger Hochstetler, who took charge of this year’s drive. In addition, he said, teachers hand out flyers at school to get the word out to potential donors and families in need.

This year’s haul was about 650 coats, according to Rotary Club of Moses Lake president Steve Ausere, enough to pile the tables two and a half or three feet high. Of those, about 75 percent were given away between the time the giveaway opened at 8:15 a.m. on Saturday and when it closed at 10 a.m. The rest will be donated to community organizations like New Hope, he added.

The bulk of the donations comes through six local businesses, Ausere said: Basin Family Chiropractic (which Ausere owns), Cobie’s Dry Cleaners, Safeway, Samaritan Healthcare, Fairfield Inn and Umpqua Bank. Donation bins were set up at those locations for community members to drop off coats, hats, gloves and other cold-weather apparel. In addition, Ausere said, some folks go a step further and seek out coats at garage sales and such.

Historically, the drive has been held at Chief Moses Middle School, but the school building wasn’t available due to the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Columbia Basin volunteered its clubhouse at Park Orchard Elementary. The change of venue may have affected turnout some, Hochstetler said, as about three-quarters of the usual number of people came. But, he added, they got coats to kids who needed them, which was the point.

“There’s just a lot of gratitude,” he said. “They’re very thankful. The first person standing in line was standing out there without a coat at all. There’s a real need and that’s why we’ve been going as many years as we have. I think everybody just walks out very appreciative that they’re able to get the coats for their kids and families.”

Hochstetler said volunteer turnout was great this year as well, and gave a special shout-out to Cobie’s Fine Dry Cleaning of Moses Lake.

“They do all the cleaning for us for the last couple of years. It’s huge. They work hard on it. We collect coats for about eight weeks, and they clean for about eight weeks.”

By any measure, this year’s drive and giveaway were a success, both Rotarians said.

“It was great to see the families walking out with coats and hats and gloves,” said Ausere. “It wasn’t just coats. And to see them coming out with all these articles was really a great thing.”

“It’s one of those heartthrob things,” agreed Hochstetler.