Roni-Lyn Sanders’ annual coat drive has come a long way since she and her father, Gordie, collected 20 coats at her father’s SPCA Thrift Mart in Richmond which they then distributed to needy people in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

But it’s only a short move around the corner that could do in her Christmas collection.

Roni-Lyn brought the coat drive to New Westminster when she opened her own SPCA Thrift Mart on Sixth Avenue.

In 15 years, it’s grown from that modest pile stuffed into the trunk of a car to about 5,000 pounds of donated coats that fill the back of a five-ton truck.

But when she was forced to move her store earlier this year to a new location around the corner at 615 12th St. because her lease was up, she also lost access to the storage space she needs for all those coats until they’re distributed on Dec. 10.

Roni-Lyn says she needs about 1,000 square feet of temporary space to store and properly sort the coats.

Even a steel shipping container would do, if she could get the city to give her permission to park it on the street next to her store for a few weeks.

The uncertainty has made her hesitant to kick the coat drive, which she usually begins Oct. 1, into high gear.

So far she’s got a couple of garbage bags of coats squirreled away in the corners of her crowded shop; usually she already has about 20 or 30.

“We’ve got nowhere to put them,” says Roni-Lyn.

Turning away contributors has been tough, she says, because she knows there’s such a need.

When she and her father did their first coat drive, there weren’t a lot of groups willing to step up to help people trying to scrape by on the streets and in the alleys.

As they handed out their first load of coats, someone threw a bottle at her head from the window of a nearby building.

“Nobody wanted to help,” says Roni-Lyn. “The people really went unnoticed.”

Last year, the line of people snaked down the street from the back of their donated Penske truck where they handed out the coats. Her team of 10 to 15 volunteers included Girl Guides who served cups of warm soup, buns and coffee.

Being able to help keep people warm fills her with warmth, says Roni-Lyn.

“For some of them, it’s like their Christmas,” says Roni-Lyn of the day they distribute the coats directly to those who need them.

“It’s nice to know you can help other people. If everyone does a little bit, it’s not a difficult task.”

Coats that aren’t distributed in the Downtown Eastside are then donated to the Purpose Society in New Westminster. Roni-Lyn says she’s noticed the quality of donated coats getting better every drive, from ragged cast-offs in those first years to brand new waterproof jackets with their sales tags still attached.

“I couldn’t imagine going through the winter without a coat,” says Roni-Lyn of what keeps her going. Just as she can’t imagine going through a Christmas season without her coat drive.

If you’ve got a space, or a shipping container, to donate where Roni-Lyn can store her coats until Dec. 10, she wants to talk to you.

Call the SPCA Thrift Mart at 604-540-7722.

photo@newwestnewsleader.com