Coats collected on Finlay bridge tomorrow (Bob Schneider image)

By Brian Konrad

Effort to collect warm clothing returns Saturday

Coats on Finlay ready to help again

Oct 27, 2023 | 12:37 PM

MEDICINE HAT — Just in time for the colder weather comes another edition of Coats on Finlay.

This will be the fourth year that volunteers have organized the effort to collect coats, mitts, toques and other warm apparel for those in need in Medicine Hat.

People are asked to place their item on a metal hanger if possible, as plastic ones don’t work well for attaching to the bridge.

The idea was born when Helen Snortland saw a similar effort in Dublin, Ireland, and thought the bridge they were using looked like our own Finlay bridge, and it’s taken off from there.

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Snortland says the experience of that first year remains a vivid memory.

“What brought me to tears, we came the next morning to take the coats down and there were a hundred empty hangers that had gone through the night,” says Snortland, reflecting on how some preferred to be there when no one was around.

Kym Porter was one of the first people to volunteer to assist Snortland with Coats on Finlay and together they’ve coordinated the effort, now into it’s 4th year.

“People want to help and sometimes we don’t know how to help and this seems like a fairly simple way that families can come down with their children, drop a coat off or we have families coming down and shopping for their children,” notes Porter who says it is somewhat overwhelming how people have embraced the effort which she sees as a sign of a significant need here and across the country.

Volunteers are welcome to assist in the collection of coats on the bridge, with the prime hours tomorrow between noon and 4.

Donations remain hanging on the Finlay bridge through the night before they’re collected and taken to The Post after 8 am Sunday, where they will remain available free of charge to those in need.