VA wants your help with coats for needy veterans. Just call, drive up and donate.

The Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center is collecting new, warm coats for needy veterans during the winter months, and donors only have to drive up to the center to donate a coat.

The VA is acception donations of coats at its 508 Fulton Street facility. To coordinate the drop-off of your donation, contact VA’s Voluntary Services at 919-286-0411, extension 7810. Someone from the VA will meet donors at the flag pole, and donors don’t even have to leave their car. All donors will receive a receipt and acknowledgment letter for the value of the coat.

“We want to make it as convenient as possible for people who are donating,” said Yves-Marie Daley, public affairs specialist for the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Since collections began, school groups and members of nonprofit groups have come to donate coats, Daley said.

The VA needs sizes L, XL and 2XXL for both men and women veterans. Everything from light jackets to heavy winter coats are welcome, Daley said.

Veterans in need “run the gamut” from the truly homeless, to those at risk of becoming homeless, to those having trouble paying bills, Daley said. To date, 80 coats have been donated this year, Daley said. Last year, the VA issued about 600 coats to needy veterans, she said.

Operation Cold Front, the name of the coat drive, began nine years ago when social workers and staff came together to provide a coat for a veteran in need. To date, the VA has received more than 4,000 brand new coats for veterans.

This story was originally published December 13, 2017 at 11:48 AM with the headline "VA wants your help with coats for needy veterans. Just call, drive up and donate.."