Gift-giving season may be over, but it’s still cold outside
I’ve had elementary-aged children in the Cape Henlopen School District for years now. Inevitably, around Thanksgiving, I’m a recipient of a district-wide email reminding guardians that cold weather is here and it’s time to make sure children are dressed appropriately.
The change in seasons can come quickly, and some parents need to be gently pushed into bringing out the cold-weather bin from the attic. That’s the category I’d throw my family into – the don’t-want-summer-to-end category.
Some families, no matter how many gentle reminders they receive, aren’t sending their kids to school dressed for freezing temperatures because winter clothing is expensive and they can’t afford to. That’s where an organization like the Millsboro-based Clothing Our Kids comes into play. Founded in 2012, they have provided more than 260,000 items to nearly 41,000 kids. This school year alone, they’ve provided nearly 12,000 items to almost 1,500 kids.
Clothing Our Kids board members Bob Blouin and Merrill Cohen were at the office Dec. 22, to receive collected clothing from a couple of organizations that had set up clothing drives. They both moved here around 2018 and have been volunteering since.
“We’re all retired, and this is the need we see,” said Blouin.
The organization started out by providing clothes to elementary students, and then middle school students were added three years ago, said Cohen. The thought was there would still be a need as the elementary-aged kids got older, he said, adding the program now works with more than 60 schools in Sussex County.
This year, for the first time, the organization took on high school students.
The level of need is always steady, but this year it’s been off the charts, said Blouin. It can be a challenge with high school kids because they need adult-size clothing, which can quickly get expensive, he said.
At this point, the annual rush of holiday clothing drives and donations has subsided, but we’re also heading into the coldest part of the year.
The needs don’t stop just because the holiday season is over, said Blouin.
The best way for someone to help is to volunteer, donate money or organize a clothing drive, said Cohen.
“We only accept new clothing that still has the tags on it,” he said. “Some of the kids never get new clothing.”
Local mural lost to time
I saw the menhaden mural on the Beacon Inn in Lewes was irreparably damaged due to a storm earlier this year. Dedicated in 2019 and painted by artist Damon Pla, the image featured three vessels – two with a dozen men in each working together to pull up a large seine net full of menhaden; one large steamship in the back ready to unload that full net into its belly. It depicted a way of life in Lewes that’s only a couple generations removed.
It's a disappointing end to the mural. It reminded me of another that I hadn’t thought about for years – a three-story-tall mural depicting a sunrise and sunset in Dewey Beach.
Titled “Dewey Beach – Sunrise to Sunset,” artist Andrew Dera painted the mural in 2015 on the southern wall of the Sea Esta Motel III on Route 1. The sunrise section of the mural was from the vantage point of a person standing at the top of a dune crossing and looking out over the soft blues, pinks, yellows and reds of a sunrise. The sunset section featured silhouettes of people enjoying the shallow waters of the bay on one of those hot summer nights that are full of bright reds, yellows and oranges. Similar to the menhaden mural in Lewes, I thought it captured the feel of Dewey pretty well. I especially liked the bright colors.
That mural was lost to time a few years after it was completed, but it wasn’t because of Mother Nature. The motel changed ownership, became Hotel Dewey and got a new paint job.
Joke of the Week
I always appreciate submitted jokes, especially when it makes my life easier during a time of year when I have truncated deadlines because of the holidays. Reader Jane submitted not one, but two jokes recently. A holiday miracle. As always, send jokes to cflood@capegazette.com.
Q: What did Santa say while walking backwards?
A: Oh Oh Oh
Q: What do Santa's Elfs learn in school?
A: The Elfabet!
Chris Flood has been working for the Cape Gazette since early 2014. He currently covers Rehoboth Beach and Henlopen Acres, but has also covered Dewey Beach and the state government. He covers environmental stories, business stories and random stories on subjects he finds interesting, and he also writes a column called Choppin’ Wood that runs every other week. He’s a graduate of the University of Maine and the Landing School of Boat Building & Design.
