Juanita High School senior collects 129 items for the homeless during coat drive in Kirkland

The MORELove Winter Coat Drive in Kirkland, organized by Juanita High School senior Kendall Stern, collected 129 items, including 93 coats, from Nov. 7 to Dec. 9.

The MORELove Winter Coat Drive in Kirkland, organized by Juanita High School senior Kendall Stern, collected 129 items, including 93 coats, from Nov. 7 to Dec. 9.

The items collected included: 11 pairs of shoes, 22 hats, eight scarves, nine pairs of gloves, 17 pairs of pants, 23 shirts and 46 sweaters, plus many pairs of socks and hygiene items.

The Kirkland nonprofit event was collecting the items to donate to homeless individuals in the area. Stern set up a box at Kirkland CrossFit to collect the items.

“I am so excited with how the project went and the community involvement throughout the last month,” said Stern, who is 17. “One that stood out was a man that brought multiple women’s sweaters. His wife recently passed away, and he decided to donate some of her clothes to the coat drive. This is the type of selfless giving that the project ran on.”

Stern said she heard about the project on Facebook, and thought it was too simple and too easy an idea to ignore.

She’s been involved in community service projects before, helping to set up food banks and working to clean up city parks, and has also made trips to work with international schools in Costa Rica, Peru and Tanzania.

Her international travel has helped her to realize the many issues people face right here at home, she said.