During COVID-19, homeless shelter numbers have significantly increased due to
unemployment and inability to remain outdoors. Coupled with the cool winters of the Bay Area,
several homeless shelters do not have enough coats for their residents.
Many non-profit organizations responded by holding coat drives in the community; for instance, “Shrimad Rajchandra: Love and Care,” an organization that distributes goods and services to the needy
throughout the world, organized a coat drive within all of the Bay Area but faced difficulty in
contacting people on an individual basis. Therefore, Chaitya Jodhavat of Fremont’s Troop 154
set up a coat drive within his troop to collect warm clothing and then provide it to “Shrimad
Rajchandra: Love and Care,” who then distributed the clothing to shelters throughout the Bay
Area.
When Chaitya first decided to carry out this project, he was skeptical as to the number of
scouts that would choose to donate. The pandemic was raging like never before, and many
people were hesitant to even leave their homes. Chaitya attempted to publicize this project to as
many of Troop 154’s scouts as possible, but he unfortunately did not receive any donations from
January 4th to 7th. However, his luck changed on Friday the 8th. Over the course of the
weekend, Troop 154’s 9 scouts donated 15 bags of coats, which in total held 40 pieces of warm
clothing! There were several items donated, including coats, sweatpants, gloves, beanies, and
mittens.
Chaitya and Troop 154 are proud of this achievement. Clothing is an essential to
everybody, and COVID-19 should not hinder its availability. Chaitya has assured that the clothes
donated from this coat drive will be put to as well a use as possible. The donors can also rest
assured that everyone, from young to old, will all be able to receive the help that Troop 154 has
provided.