By: Hon. Scott Benson
Every December, my staff and I pull together a team of other public officials, corporations, and community leaders to accomplish an important mission. That mission is to provide brand new hats, gloves, socks, scarves, and coats to the students at Fisher Lower, and Upper Magnet Academies, where school officials tell me about 90 percent of the students arrive to school in the cold weather months without a coat, or any cold weather gear.
This annual event brings warmth and joy to those schoolchildren. It brings smiles to the faces of our volunteers who man the tables and help outfit the children in new winter coats, hats, gloves, socks and scarves. It also brings a sense of dignity, pride and community to the schools, and sets an example of what it means to help others – a lesson I hope the children carry with them into adulthood.
This event was started years ago by Minister Malik Shabazz, a longtime Detroit community activist and force for good in our city. He held an event annually to provide hats, gloves, socks, and scarves to Detroit children. In 2014, he asked if my office could take over this project and we added coats to the event in 2016 to respond to the overwhelming need schools had with children who didn’t have coats when cold weather hit.
Over the years, we have grown this event to accommodate the needs of Dr. Shekitra Green and her 800 students at the Fisher Lower and Fisher Upper Academies. As I noted, Dr. Green told me that about 90 percent of her students do not have appropriate winter clothing, so every September my office holds a birthday party fundraiser where we reach out to the philanthropic, government, corporate and local business community to purchase new winter clothing for the children of both academies. Then we hold the event where we deliver the gift of warmth every year just before Christmas.
We are proud to provide top quality clothing from Macy’s and other clothing retailers to ensure we are providing clothing articles that students not only want, but need. This is an important element because I want children to understand that while you may come from a low-income household, it does not mean you are low quality. My office wants the absolute best for these students to ensure they have pride and dignity in their dress so they can focus on doing well in school and not worry about staying warm and dry.
This project is a heavy lift, and we have grown our partnerships with businesses and community leaders to ensure we can outfit 800 students in brand new winter clothing. My staff spends many dozens of volunteer hours: fundraising, purchasing clothing, organizing the event with the schools and securing additional volunteers to help children select their new hat, gloves, socks, scarf and coat.
The looks of joy and happiness on the faces of these children is the best gift. To see their eyes light up when they zip up that new coat and match it with a pair of gloves and a warm hat and scarf makes all of the adult volunteers smile and feel the spirit of the season.
Of course, we couldn’t do this without the generous support of our partners. They include:
- George Mugainis & Family
- Molina Health Care
- Amazon
- Bedrock
- Gilbert Family Foundation
- LEAR Seats
- Clerk Janice Winfrey
- Chris Jackson
- Ignition Media
- Macy’s
- Roncelli Construction
- McDonald’s
- Rogers Clark
- Richard Hosey
- Michael McLauchlan
- Curis Enterprises
- DTE Energy
- Payne Landscaping
- Ehsan Taqbeem
- Regional Council of Carpenters
- Basco Detroit
- And a host of others
Thank you to Minister Malik Shabazz for starting this project and for passing the torch on to me 10 years ago. In addition, thank you to our partners for the generosity and care they provide to help make each child feel special and loved.
Hon. Scott Benson is a Detroit City Councilman who represents the 3rd District on Detroit’s north eastside. Councilman Benson is an Urban Planner by training with an extensive background in real estate and community development in Southeastern Michigan. Scott also serves his community by siting on numerous boards, is an avid cyclist and a proud husband and father.
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