The Central Virginia Chapter of the international nonprofit organization Writing for Peace will be collecting warm winter gear for those in need in the community from Jan. 22-Feb. 5 as part of a Winter Warmth Drive.

Assisting the regional chapter will be Navona Hart and the staff of Real Living Cornerstone Real Estate.

In a Facebook post promoting the drive, Kalimah Patricia Carter stated it is “so cold outside, and we have months before the warm weather returns. And we have brothers and sisters right here where we live who are struggling with this cold weather! Please help!”

She noted that for the drive, needed items include new or gently used coats, warm socks, hats, gloves, blankets and sleeping bags.
Carter listed two collection sites to mail donations or to drop them off in person. The first address is as follows: c/o Mary Carroll-Hackett, Grainger 112, Longwood University, 201 High St., Farmville VA 23909. The second address is as follows: c/o Navona Hart, Real Living Cornerstone, 238 N. Main St., Farmville, VA 23901.

“All items collected will go to benefit those in need right here in Prince Edward County, to be distributed through the community outreach programs of the Prince Edward County Islamic Center, thanks to Ty Carter and Kalimah Patricia Carter,” the Facebook post read.

Explaining what led to the creation of the Winter Warmth Drive, Carroll-Hackett noted that she is on the board of directors for Writing for Peace, a nonprofit dedicated to “promoting empathy and peaceful activism through creative writing.”

“Through my participation with Writing for Peace and through my work teaching English at Longwood University,” Carroll-Hackett said, “many of my creative writing students and alums have also become engaged with the organization, enough so that a group of these young people, along with community members from Prince Edward County, came together recently to found the inaugural regional chapter of Writing for Peace here: the Central Virginia Chapter of Writing for Peace.”
She said the Winter Warmth Drive is one of the first initiatives for the regional chapter, a project proposed by recent Longwood graduate Stuart Nicholson and enthusiastically taken on by the other chapter members. She added that a mirror drive will be held by other chapter members now living in Richmond.

“Farmville becomes home to the students who come to Longwood, and many of them, especially those involved with the Writing for Peace Chapter, know the toll of poverty here in central Virginia,” Carroll-Hackett said. “In this case, in this bitter weather, poverty could literally be life-threatening for someone who has no heat.”

She pointed out that this drive is a way “for the chapter to engage in its mission, and a way for all of us involved to give to our community.”

Hart said, “I am very blessed to have heat and appropriate weather clothing for this time of year. The thought of one of my neighbors freezing to death in their home is too much for me to bear. So I will help and do what I can. I hope that our community will participate. I am not sure if the community realizes that they may have neighbors that do not have heat. I know they would help if they knew. These coats, gloves, scarves and blankets will be placed directly into the hands that need them.”

For more information or to ask questions about the drive, send an email to wfpcentralvirginia@gmail.com.