COUNTYWIDE : Clothing Drive Begins on Saturday

The third annual Orange County clothing drive begins Saturday with the hope of collecting garments that will help keep the area’s homeless and disadvantaged dry and warm in the winter months.

All 48 county-run fire stations will collect clothing, and drive organizers said donations most needed include blankets, jackets, sweaters, sweat shirts, hats, shoes, gloves, scarves and packaged undergarments.

The clothes gathered during the campaign, which runs through Nov. 15, will be distributed at the county’s armories, which are opened to house the homeless during cold and rainy months, county homeless issues coordinator Maria Mendoza said.

Mendoza said surplus clothes would be routed to the county’s five Goodwill Industries locations. Goodwill would give drive organizers credit vouchers for the surplus clothes, which would in turn be distributed to year-round shelters and care providers to give to the needy on a case-by-case basis.

“The shelters will give the vouchers to families on a need basis, and those people would be able to go to Goodwill and use the credit for clothes, furniture or toys,” Mendoza said.

The drive last year amassed 37,000 pounds of clothing that was handed out to 20,000 people. There are 10,000 to 12,000 homeless people in Orange County at any given time, officials estimate. About half are believed to be children.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday honored the work of Mendoza and Orange County Fire Department employees who have organized the drive the past three years.

The drive provides “a safety net,” Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder said as she presented a plaque to the organizers. “And for people less fortunate than us, it means they can at least be warm at night.”

For information on the closest donation site or details about volunteering time to help the county’s disadvantaged, call (714) 834-3028. This year, plastic bags will be left outside at stations for donors who drop off clothes when station personnel are away on call.