With winter in sight, RiverView Health Auxiliary is holding its 16th Annual Mitten Drive all through November, in the form of a Mitten Tree for elementary school students. The Mitten Tree is an artificial tree that the Auxiliary puts up in front of their Limited Addition Gift Shop on the east side of RiverView. The public is invited to “trim” the tree with new children’s winter clothes, specifically with mittens, gloves, and hats. “People can drop off their donations of mittens, gloves, headbands, or hats, and will run this from November 1 through November 30,” RiverView Health’s Community Relations and Events Specialist Carrie Bergquist explained. “The next day, either December 1 or 2, we will be distributing all of the donations to Highland Elementary School for sure and Washington Elementary School, as we have done in the past.” The Auxiliary requests that all donations to the tree be new items and be in sizes for children in grades K-6. People can then place their donations on the tree or drop them off in the gift shop if there’s not any more room on the tree.
The Auxiliary also asks that people only bring in the requested items for the drive, as those are the main items they are collecting. “We’re just focusing on the mittens, hand warmers, hats, and headbands for this drive,” Bergquist explained. “I would suggest that if people wanted to donate coats, snowpants, boots, and such, those can be donated to the Care and Share here in Crookston. I think they’re also running a winter drive.” When the drive ends at the end of November, the Auxiliary will drop off the items at the two schools and distribute them to the teachers, who will pass them out to their students. “We will distribute them to teachers and leave it from there. Those mittens, gloves, and hats may go to kids that lost those items or maybe forgot them at home that day. It’s not necessarily to kids that may not have those items, it does include them for sure, but it’s also for kids that maybe lost their gloves on the bus or left them on the bus that morning,” Bergquist explained. “We just want to ensure those items are available for kids no matter where their previous ones went. We want to make those available so they stay nice and warm before, during, and after school and during recess.” After the drive, the Auxiliary is still going to be in a charitable mood as it will have its Angel Tree in December, where it will have the wish lists of residents displayed on the tree for community members to donate for the holidays. We will have more information about it in a future story.
RiverView Health’s 16th Annual Mitten Drive will be going on all through November, with the Mitten Tree being located just outside of the Center’s Limited Addition Gift Shop on the east side of the Center. The public is invited to “trim” the tree with donations that will go to the local public Elementary Schools on December 1 or 2.
Pictures of last year’s Mitten Tree and donations can be found below-
