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When Cathy O’Donnell approached her bosses at The Ann Arbor News to sponsor a program that would put warm clothing on the backs of the area’s poor children, she wasn’t thinking about the long term.


She’d read about the Warm the Children program in her alumni Notre Dame Magazine and wanted The News to be part of a nationwide program in which newspapers ask their readers to donate money so needy children can have new warm clothes around the holidays. 


That was 1997.


Thirteen years later, the program has become even more relevant.

As Michigan suffers through the worst economic times in decades, the need for the program has grown, said O’Donnell, who has since moved to Seattle where she works as a public information officer with the University of Washington. Still, she’s delighted - and a little surprised - that WTC has endured.

“I had no idea get would be around this long,” she said. “I thought maybe we’d do it for one season and that would be good.”


From the start, WTC struck a chord at the newspaper.

“So many people pitched in to shop, write Warm the Children articles, design and manage databases, count donations, arrange shopping trips,” she said.

O’Donnell coordinated the program, rounding up volunteers, communicating with schools to create a list of families in need and organizing the publicity. After putting into 40 hours at the paper, O’Donnell would send another 20 hours a week during November and December to work on WTC.

“The sheer volume of tasks was daunting,” she said, “so it was very important to have the support of my bosses and friends in the newsroom.” 


And O’Donnell squeezed in some shopping.


“I did several shopping trips a year but was never very good at it because I didn’t have the patience,” she said. “We had a crew of super shoppers. One of them, for example, wouldn’t hesitate to ask a manager to lower a price if she thought the child really needed the item but there wasn’t enough money left on the purchase order.”


O’Donnell was also able to witness acts of kindness reciprocated.

There was a family in financial trouble because of a divorce, and a teacher was astute enough to refer them to WTC for needed winter clothing. The mother wasn’t used to turning to charity for help, and it was hard for her, O’Donnell said. Several years later, back on her financial feet, she returned to the program, this time as a shopper, O’Donnell said. 


WTC also struck a chord with the community. About $95,000 was raised that first year.

“An administrator for the paper had told me I’d be lucky if we raised $40,000, so I was astonished when we wound up with something like $95,000,” O’Donnell said.


Today, the program’s longevity is owed to readers and volunteers, O’Donnell said.

“A lot of people have taken responsibility for it,” she said. “They’ve made it their own.”

All of the money donated to WTC goes to buy clothing for children.

AnnArbor.com took over the program from The News when it closed last summer and continues to cover overhead and administration costs.


The goal is to raise $250,000 for the 2010 program.

To donate to WTC, see the coupon in today’s paper. For more information call the Warm the Children hotline at 734-623-2525.

You can also donate by visiting AnnArbor.com’s community space on the first floor of 301 E. Liberty St. in downtown Ann Arbor an having a cup of coffee. The coffee is being donated on a rotating basis by local coffee roasters, and your purchase of a cup of coffee for $1.50 goes to Warm the Children.