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Operation Warm Gives Away Free Winter Coats To CHA Residents

(CBS) -- Chicago Housing Authority residents filled the UIC Forum Saturday to get free winter coats for the children, flu shots, food and more.

It's the seventh consecutive year for the coat giveaway, only one part of a much larger community service fair sponsored by the CHA, the city of Chicago and Operation Warm.

You could sign up to attend the City Colleges or for financial literacy classes from Wells Fargo. Nearly 30 community service agencies were represented. But the focus was the coats. Operation Warm Executive Director Rich Lalley said the privately-funded group handed out more than 10,000 children's coats in sizes ranging from toddler to adult large.

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Mayor Emanuel said it is one more example of the city watching out for Chicago's neediest.

"We make sure that we measure ourselves by how we provide for our children," Emanuel said.

But for six-year-old Alana Hampton, it means the chance to play outside:

"Because I got a really good coat, it means that I can stay outside all day," said 12-year-old Lazaria Hampton. "I like to have a snowball fight and make snowmen."

Her six-year-old sister Alana said she likes to make snow angels.

Lazaria personally thanked the mayor for her new coat, as her mother snapped a photo with her smart phone. She wore the coat she received from Operation Warm a year ago, which she has begun to outgrow.

Operation Warm is providing more than 40,000 coats in the Chicago area this winter, also working through churches, fire departments, youth service agencies and 15 Chicago public schools. Lalley said it provides more than 400,000 new coats, all purchased at wholesale, to needy children nationwide each year, working also in cities that include Philadelphia, Boston, Detroit, Seattle and Minneapolis-St. Paul. More than 80,000 of the coats are made in the U.S.

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