THREE WIDE warms hearts, bodies this holiday
Published 12:05 am Saturday, December 21, 2024
Donna and Steve Thomas
The THREE WIDE Foundation's annual Christmas dinner and winter coat giveaway packed First Presbyterian Church earlier this month. - Submitted
Winter coats pile up at First Presbyterian Church in Salisbury in the lead up to the THREE WIDE Foundation's winter coat drive. - Submitted
One visitor to the THREE WIDE Foundation annual Christmas Dinner and Winter Coat Giveaway has a bit of a sweet tooth. - Submitted
THREE WIDE Foundation's Christmas dinner and winter coat giveaway brings families and friends together for fellowship. - Submitted
SALISBURY — With Christmas time demanding so much from so many, pulling everyone to and fro, it can be easy to forget that it’s pretty cold this time of year. But for those who don’t have a winter coat, it might be the biggest thing on their minds.
THREE WIDE Foundation founders Donna and Steve Thomas decided to do something about that. They organized a winter coat giveaway and through an annual event at First Presbyterian Church, the couple makes sure that members of the Rowan County community don’t go cold this time of year.
Steve said that they have been doing the winter coat drive for seven years. He said the church is a great setting for their event which also features a Christmas meal because it is centrally located and the fellowship hall facilities are conducive to what they are trying to do.
“They eat there, and then they go down the hall and shop for coats,” Steve said.
Shopping goes to describe the general nature that Steve and Donna are trying to create; they don’t actually charge the families, but giving them coats to choose from empowers the children with a little autonomy and makes them feel like they really are out shopping,
The traditional Christmas meal they serve consists of holiday staples like turkey, green beans and mashed potatoes. They also offer an array of dessert options for those who remember to bring their sweet teeth.
Donna indicated that after Christmas each year, she starts looking for coat sales online and in stores.
“I start just buying small, medium, large, small, medium, large and children’s sizes,” Donna said. “When school starts again in the fall, we start identifying families and children, and the coordinators, the liaisons, whichever agency we’re working with, will send specific sizes.”
Donna said they do not take even gently used coats. It’s important to the drive’s mission that they have brand-new coats. They try to recreate the shopping experience for the children in attendance, offering them a mirror in which to try the coats on before they pick out which one they want.
When the big day comes, those children are invited, and so are the families.
“It’s not a drop your kid off thing, or are just coming to get a coat and leave,” Donna said. “It’s a come-in, enjoy the companionship, the fellowship and the meal.”
Oftentimes those children who are signed up to get a coat don’t come alone. Steve and Donna welcome that and never turn a child in need away.
“If we have something that’s gonna work, it’s going with them,” Donna said.
The organization’s mission sprung out of a day in church. Steve said he and Donna both felt an urge to do something that would be giving back.
“We had someone speak from the congregation that day, and it happened to be somebody from the school system,” Steve said. “They were giving us all the details and the numbers on how many children go hungry in Rowan County, which floored us. And when we left church that Sunday, we said, this is exactly what we need to do. We need to feed kids. We honestly wish we could feed them weekly, but we had to start somewhere.”
Since young children are out of school for an extended period during the holidays, that seemed like a good time to try to account for that nutrition gap.
So, where did the coats come in?
“The first year we did this, we had a tree, and we had Santa, and we had just, we just had random toys and gifts under the tree,” Donna said. “Then we realized, you know, that gets done a lot … we want to do something a little different. And so our idea was to gift a coat.”
This year, Donna and Steve estimate they gave out more than 200 coats, which is a big jump from the first time they gave out coats and maybe helped warm 80 people or so.
As the organization’s outreach grows, Steve and Donna are delighted they are able to make an impact in the area and are grateful to the friends and community members who make it possible through various donations and other contributions.
Ultimately, it’s all in the nature of the season. Even the name, although comically derived from a random encounter on the highway, pays tribute to God. Steve was driving down the road and saw a truck with three people sitting across the front seat. He thought to himself, “THREE WIDE,” and the name stuck. Its application proved fruitful in multiple ways.
“It’s faith, family and food,” Steve said. “It’s our three sons and it’s the Holy Trinity. When you start to think about it, there’s a lot of three that make up THREE WIDE Foundation.”
To learn more about THREE WIDE Foundation’s efforts and mission, visit the website https://www.threewide.foundation/.
