Sweet Sweats For Love
Supporting the Teenage Foster Children of Dayton, Ohio, Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and Southeastern Indiana With Much Needed Hooded Sweatshirts and Sweatpants.
Sweet Sweats For Love
When Julie Whitney, owner of Phillippi-Whitney Communications LLC was watching ABC World News Tonight the evening of August 26, 2014 she saw a story that made a tremendous impact on her. It was a feature about the foster children in Richmond, Virginia who had to carry all of their belongings in a black trash bag as they moved from home to home. This story motivated her to organize a luggage drive called ‘Cases For Love’ for the foster children of Hamilton County in January, 2015. The campaign was more successful than she ever imagined.
Says Whitney, “‘Cases For Love’ was an extraordinary effort by all of the extremely passionate parties involved, and it is an understatement to say that it exceeded our expectations. Our initial goal was 1,200 suitcases, and we actually received close to 10,000, allowing us to serve the foster children throughout Dayton, Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and Southeastern Indiana. This entire effort was made possible due to the generous support of generous citizens of our region, as well as the local media, who latched onto this story and never let go.”
In 2016, Whitney and Sibcy Cline teamed up again with ‘Gloves For Love,’ an effort that provided more than 6,800 gloves, mittens, scarves and hats to area foster children. The momentum has continued, and in 2017, the ‘Sweet Soles For Love’ campaign resulted in more 1,500 pairs of new shoes for area foster children.
Adds Whitney, “This year promises to be even bigger and better as we collect new sweatshirts and sweatpants for area foster children from ages 5 to 18 with our ‘Sweet Sweats For Love’ campaign. There is a tremendous need for teenage girls and boys hooded sweatshirts and sweatpants. All of the clothing must be new, ideally with tags intact. Our goal is to collect more than 1,000 sweatshirts and sweatpants to be distributed to the foster kids throughout Dayton, Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, and Southeastern.”
Says Pam Sibcy, Vice President of Marketing for Sibcy Cline, “We heard about the need for a drop-off location back in 2014, and jumped on board from day one to help collect the suitcases in all of our 23 locations. But ‘Cases For Love,’ ‘Gloves For Love,’ and ‘Sweet Soles For Love’ became much more than a suitcase, winter gloves or shoe collection to us. Our offices became very passionate about the needs of foster children, and our 1,200 realtors started making their own fliers and personally collecting items from their clients regionally. Our collection boxes in our branch offices overflowed with donations! Once again, everyone at Sibcy Cline is looking forward to collecting both hooded sweatshirts and sweatpants and excited to be able to support the needs of the children in foster care!”
The “Sweet Sweats For Love” Drive is happening now and ends on Wednesday, February 14th, in commemoration of Valentine’s Day - a day that celebrates love for others. Citizens are invited to drop off new hooded sweatshirts and sweatpants for teenage boys and girls at the 23 Sibcy Cline locations during the hours of 9am-5pm Monday through Friday.
Whitney concludes, “Please continue to like and follow us on our Facebook page at facebook.com/SweetSweatsForLove, which will be updated on a regular basis throughout the campaign.”
