Medina Journal-Register — An annual clothing drive sponsored by New York State Assemblywoman Jane Corwin exceeded her expectations this year, and local charities are benefiting from the generosity of local residents.

During November and December Corwin accepted donations of gently used coats, hats, gloves, boots, and other winter wear.

Corwin’s third annual “Winter Coat and Clothing Drive” waqs held during the past month and this year she added satellite locations for donors to drop off goods.

Anyone who wished to participate in the clothing drive was able to drop off their donations to several locations in Western New York including the assemblyowman’s district office in Clarence, The City of Lockport Municipal Building, Somerset Town Hall, Porter Town Hall and Newfane Town Hall

On Dec. 18, Corwin and her staff gathered the donations from the satellite donation sites and brought them back to her office to organize the clothing into care packages for a number of local charities that will be receiving the clothing.

Last Wednesday and Thursday all of the clothing collected was donated to local charities in Corwin’s district. With the help of her staff, Corwin personally donated clothing to the Clarence Presbyterian Church, Lockport Cares, St. John’s Outreach in Lockport, Newfane First Baptist Church, and the Early Childhood Learning Center in Burt.

Corwin’s office received so many donations; they were actually unprepared in terms of how much clothing they anticipated receiving and where they were going to put all of the donations.

“We weren’t expecting to get as many donations as we did, and we didn’t know what to do with all of the clothes that we got,” said Paul Bologna, a representative from Corwin’s office. “We had so many donations they wouldn’t even fit in our office.”

Fortunately, the landlords of Corwin’s office permitted use a vacant office down the hall to accommodate the large quantity of clothing.

“Since this was the first year that we have ever collected clothing at satellite locations, we were unsure of what to expect in terms of quantity, and to our great surprise and pleasure, we ended up with more coats and clothes than all others years we’ve been running the drive combined,” said Corwin. “The community support has been fantastic.”

In less than a month, more than 1,000 coats, jackets, hats, gloves and other winter wear items that could provide warmth to over a few hundred families were donated.

“We were able to collect clothing for over 100 families last year, and we’ve more than quadrupled that this year,” Corwin said.