The St. Jude House in Crown Point was the setting for a special event on Tuesday evening. Rick Gosser, owner of Gosser Corporate Sales Inc. was giving out warm coats and hats to needful people in Northwest Indiana, just in time for the impending winter season.
"I came up with the idea a week ago," Gosser stated. "I felt that this was important. I wanted to give back and keep people warm this winter."
50 brand new winter coats and hats were bought from Gossers' suppliers and he distributed them, along with the help of familiar holiday characters like Santa, a Gingerbread Man, and the popular Disney snow queen to the clients at St. Jude House.
"This holiday season has been amazing. It just warms my heart to see all the generosity of the community. We have a storage area with clothing donations. Often have people who come to us with just the clothes on their backs and so we go through the storage to give them clothes," Linda Perez-Gallegos, Executive Director of St. Jude House said. "What Rick did for us was overwhelming and we are so grateful that someone from the community would want to do something like this for our families."
St. Jude House is a nonprofit organization that provides shelter for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Since 1995 the organization has helped close to 10,000 individuals become what they call "survivors". But they do more than provide food and shelter to children adults, they also provide programs and services to empower the people that come through the door. They help adults find jobs, they offer group programs, and they do quite a bit with the children that they see.
"We really try to empower people to get back on their feet. so that when they go back out into the world they can live independent lives," Perez-Gallegos said.
Great Harvest Bread Company donated loaves of bread to the cause as well.
To find out more about St. Jude House, click here!