Preparing needy children for winter is the goal of a local group. Coats For Kids plans to again purchase cold weather clothes for children in the Litchfield School District who need them. Last year, the program served 103 school age children. Matt Vaughn with Coats For Kids says Vaughn says Litchfield has a high level of need.

"It's now a school district that has half of the students living in low-income homes. Montgomery County's poverty numbers are pretty alarming, as well."

Vaughn says the Social Impact Research Center recently placed Montgomery County on the Poverty Warning List.

"We think about those children in the Litchfield School District (and) we know anecdotally about the kind of choices that those parents have to make. There was a third grade teacher who told me about a student who had a pair of jeans and a pair of sweatpants and he kind of alternated days and, of course, kids being kids, the jeans couldn't hold out. She talked about the conversation she had with the parent and the kind of thought process that began with the mother - like, okay, well what are we going to have to give up to get the kid back in two pair of pants and not one. I feel blessed in the fact that if my son ruins a pair of pants, that's an inconvenience - in a lot of families that's the sort of occurrence that creates a lot of hard choices all of a sudden."

A shopping day for the winter clothes takes place November 7th. The goal is the raise enough to purchase $100 worth of winter clothing per child, which would be around a total of $15,000. The application process takes place through October 22nd at South Litchfield Township and at Hearts United. Checks can be made payable to Coats For Kids and mailed to P.O. Box 157 Litchfield, Illinois, 62056. For more information, email Matt Vaughn at we3vons@newwavecomm.netThomack 10/5/15