Coat drive underway at Carroll High School

OZARK – There was a time when Logan’s Cleaners’ owner Richard Mathews couldn’t afford a coat to go to a high school ball game.

It was perhaps the moment his “Pops,” James “Bozo” Logan, paid for Mathews to go to Barefield’s to buy a coat that led Mathews to volunteer his company to help in a coat drive this month.

Carroll High School Assistant Principal Cliff Maddox said the Parent Teacher Organization at the high school has been collecting coats for people in need and will continue to until Thanksgiving.

So far, 35 coats have been received.

“We’ve already distributed seven and whatever we have left we will donate to a mission or church organizations. We’re proud a lot of kids (who donate) recognize there are people out there who are less fortunate,” Maddox said.

Mathews said he received a letter from organization officials asking for support on the day after his family buried Pops on Nov. 1.

He said he called to help almost immediately.

“I told them any way we could help, we would,” he said. “It just touched my heart.”