BALTIMORE — More than 450 coats were distributed to students at Matthew A. Henson Elementary School in Baltimore’s Easterwood neighborhood thanks to efforts from the Baltimore DC Building Trades Council and the North American Building Trades Union.
“We know that people are challenged in Baltimore City financially,” said Mellissa Wells, with the Baltimore DC Building Trades Council. “Not only do we try to connect people to jobs and opportunity, we try to serve in the community and provide support to those in need, and so we know that there’s a lot of students in this area of West Baltimore and often times their parents aren’t able to provide them a new coat every year, and so we’re happy to be able to provide any support we can.”
The coats are provided for by the North American Building Trades Unions in a sponsorship deal with the outfitter Lands End. This was the third time the Baltimore DC Building Trades Council worked with Baltimore City Public Schools to give back to the community.
“This year we selected Matthew A Henson, and we’ve just been having a great morning providing those coats for children, and they’ve all been excited to receive them." Wells said.
The coat drive folds into the trade group's missions of empowering residents through economic relief and resources, Wells said.
“We’re really excited to continue to support our mission of helping lift up our communities and lift up workers and their families,” said Wells. “The Building Trade Unions we focus on making sure that men and women have middle class careers in construction. We focus on providing small business opportunity for contractors and trying to get them to support the apprenticeship model, and working with communities of people to train apprenticeship programs.”
