As community members go out and about in downtown Apopka, they may have noticed that warm clothing are tied to telephone poles and trees throughout this area.
Upon closer inspection, tags could be seen attached to these clothes with the following message: “I am not lost. If you are stuck out in (the) cold, please take me to stay warm.”
At the time of the year when keeping warm in cold weather is a priority, this goal could be a challenge for some in need of suitable attire. For this reason, for one day on Monday, January 23, a group of children tied over 100 articles of donated warm clothes to telephone poles and trees throughout downtown. These items are free for anyone to untie, use and keep.
According to Jenny LeMieux, a Longwood mother and the main organizer of the clothing project, RDV Sportsplex Ice Den of Orlando donated much of the clothes for the cause. The other mothers active in the project are Kristin Grant and Molly Novosad, both of Apopka.
LeMieux added that RDV Sportsplex learned about the project from a local magazine story.
Participants started this program in Apopka in January 2016.
This year, the clothing tags bearing the “I am not lost” message has another one on the flipside: “In memory of Emma the Brave.” This note honors a late friend Emma Marques, a six-year-old girl who battled diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPG), an inoperable form of brain cancer. She died on February 3, 2015.
Marques shared her nickname with the title of the book she wrote and illustrated.
LeMieux said the Apopka clothing project was inspired by a November 2015 news article she found on Facebook about a mother, her daughter and a group of girls who carried out the same concept in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. CBC News originally published the story. Good News Network culled this article for its website, and then posted it on Facebook.
To learn how to donate to the project, contact LeMieux at Jenny@blbusinessconsulting.com.
An extended story will appear in the Friday, February 3, issue of The Apopka Chief.
