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An expression of warmth
The Pajama Express will benefit displaced children.
WARREN — Many children may not have a permanent home this holiday season, but two young people are determined to see that those children have a warm set of pajamas in which to sleep.
Katherine Chin, 9, and her brother, Joshua Chin, 11, have created the Pajama Express charitable drive.
Pajama Express is a project intended to supply new pajamas and teddy bears to children who will be spending the holidays in foster care, shelters, rescue missions and any place other than a home of their own.
Although new pajamas and teddy bears are preferred, Jackie Chin, mother of Katherine and Joshua, said gently used items will be gratefully accepted.
Jackie Chin said the idea for a pajama/ teddy bear program started with an afternoon of television.
“My son and daughter saw a show on Oprah [Winfrey] about kids waiting to be adopted and saw that a lot of the kids didn’t have pajamas. Our kids decided they wanted to do something about that locally,” Jackie Chin said.
She said the family had the idea to collect and distribute the pajamas, but did not know exactly how to go about getting the items to the people who needed them. She decided to leave donation boxes around the area but wanted to be selective in where those boxes are placed.
“I needed places that would be nonpolitical and nonreligious and away from where these women and children are being housed so no one can claim to be dropping off pajamas then cause trouble,” she said.
That is where SCOPE Inc. of Trumbull County will play a vital role. The Chin family has made several donation boxes to be left at various Senior Citizens Opportunity for Personal Endeavor locations for donations to the pajama and teddy bear drive.
A donation box was left at the SCOPE location on Market Street in Warren early Monday morning. By midafternoon, the box had been filled with several teddy bears ready for collection.
Juanita P. James, manager at the Warren SCOPE location, said the organization focuses on helping senior citizens, and the Pajama Express program falls in line with the organization’s efforts.
“We are just a drop-off location, but what we are aware of is that there are a tremendous amount of grandparents taking care of their grandchildren as well as young kids in different types of living arrangements. Those will be the target groups for this program. Our focus is seniors, and this is another way to help those seniors raising young kids,” she said.
Jackie said she will be working closely with Don Dickens, director of Trumbull County 211, to distribute the collected material to children who need them. She said organizations such as the Amos Christy House in Trumbull County, Someplace Safe, Head Start Programs and the Help Me Grow program will benefit from the pajama and teddy bear drive.
“Really, what we want is just new pajamas. We will take gently worn pajamas, but we would like new pajamas because there are a lot of kids who have never had new pajamas. Some of these kids actually sleep in their street clothes,” she said.
Jackie asked that any monetary donations be made directly to the organization of the donor’s choice as a gift via the Pajama Express program.
jgoodwin@vindy.com