Keeping Out the Cold

She may be shy, but nine-year-old Tessa Yates is not afraid to do big things.

This spring, Tessa held a lemonade stand to raise money for tornado victims in Joplin, Mo., and now she has started a drive to give coats to the needy. Her goal? To collect 15,000 coats by Saturday to donate to the Prince William County Salvation Army.

Tessa says her motivation for the coat drive was simple. “It was getting cold outside and I didn’t want anyone to be cold without jackets,” she said.

Tessa’s mom, Theresa, has tried to scale her back to what she sees as a more reasonable goal: 150 coats. But Tessa is determined, and Theresa says it’s hard to get her to back down once she’s made up her mind.

“I just say OK now,” Theresa said. “She can do whatever she wants if she puts her mind to it.” 

Three large blue barrels with Salvation Army signs sit in the Yates’s living room with the beginning of the collection. Tessa counts out the additions from the newest bag: “Twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty.” Tessa and her mom came home to find the bag on their front porch.

Tessa got the idea for the coat drive after hearing on the radio that Bergmann’s Cleaners was offering to dry-clean gently used coats donated to the Salvation Army. Tessa wanted to know how she could get involved, but found out that the coats would not be distributed until January and would go throughout the Washington, D.C. region. 

“In her mind, it’s cold now,” Theresa said of her daughter. Tessa didn’t think cold weather would wait until January for people to get coats, so she decided to start her own coat drive. Instead of the coats being spread throughout the region, she decided she specifically wanted to help people in Prince William County. 

Tessa said she was grateful for all the support she received from the Prince William County community in raising money for the Joplin tornado victims, and now she wanted to do something to give back to the county.

After she raised money for the Joplin tornado victims, the Salvation Army asked her to volunteer to ring a bell to collect donations. She did that in August, standing outside for over three hours in the sweltering heat. “I’m doing stuff to help somebody,” Tessa said. “They’re miserable, and I have a ton of stuff, and they don’t really have anything. 

“It’s just fun to help people,” she said, but then added, “But sometimes it can’t be fun because they’re miserable.”

For the coat drive, Tessa quickly enlisted the help of her friend, Madisyn Sarvis. The two fourth-graders have been friends since before kindergarten. They both get straight A’s at Rosa Parks Elementary School, they play soccer together, and they just advanced to Juniors in their girl scout troop.

Tessa wants to be a soccer player when she grows up, like Ali Krieger, the former Forest Park High School player who now plays professional soccer and who scored the game-winning penalty kick against Brazil in the quarterfinals of the 2011 Women's World Cup.

When she does that, she says she’ll use her money to buy more clothes and food for people who need them. 

“It makes me feel really good when people who need help actually get help,” Tessa said.

Tessa and Madisyn are big Taylor Swift fans, and Theresa says the girls would be ecstatic if they could get the country singer to donate a few coats herself. So far, they haven’t tried contacting Swift, though.

The girls are collecting coats through Saturday, when they will set up a tent in the driveway and hope for lots of people to come bring their donations.

Despite her mom’s attempts to reign her in, Tessa is sticking to her big expectations. Theresa says she’s hoping for a trailer load to take to the Salvation Army. Tessa? “I want, like, five trailers,” she said.

To see how you can donate to Tessa and Madisyn's coat drive, check out their Facebook event page.