By Sarah Stone

P.A. residents rally behind Geroy Simon’s Coats 4 Kids

Dec 3, 2014 | 5:49 AM

Although temperatures around the province are rising  after a week of extreme cold, that doesn’t mean you don’t have to bundle up to stay warm.

But not all families can afford new coats for their kids as they outgrow or wear out their old ones—this is where former Roughrider Geroy Simon’s Coat 4 Kids campaign comes into play.

On Tuesday, Simon was at Prince Albert’s Northern Lights Casino collecting coats from residents for his foundation.  In return, they get a signed autograph from ‘Superman’ himself.

“I feel great.  I’m rejuvenated from the past week at Grey Cup,” he said with a laugh just before meeting fans.  “But, you know, coming up here is a great cause.  It’s an exciting event for me to come up here … and help keep the kids warm up here in Prince Albert.”

Simon retired from the game after last season.  It was also last year that he started his campaign, which brought in around 15,000 coats—some right off the backs of members of the public.  This year, the coat drive grew into a full foundation

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“That’s a testament to the people of Saskatchewan, but I think that we’re well above that (15,000 coats) this year and, you know, we’re just going to get as many coats on backs of kids as we can…,” he said.

According to Simon, there is such a big need in Saskatchewan for children’s coats, especially in the North. 

Just a few weeks ago, Simon flew up to northern Saskatchewan to deliver some of the coats he had already collected to children in Buffalo Narrows thanks to a partnership with Cameco and he plans to go keep that up.

He said just last week, with the help of the Prince Albert RCMP, more coats were taken to Stony Rapids, Fond-du-Lac and the Wollaston and Hatchet Lake areas.

However, all the coats collected on Tuesday will stay in the Prince Albert area, and will be cleaned and delivered to needy organizations.

Simon said Coats 4 Kids won’t stop here.  He has big plans for the foundation into the future.

 “We’ve taken a good approach in building this,” he said, explaining how it started small in Regina and spread out across the province.

“I think next year we’ll probably get into Alberta and possibl[y] B.C. and then eventually we want to be across the country.  There’s a need everywhere and, you know, we want to be able to fill that need, but we want to do it the right way; we have a strategic plan of doing that because it’s a big initiative and you need a lot of feet on the ground.”

Anyone looking to donate a coat can still do so at the Co-op or give a monetary donation, click here.

sstone@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahstone84