At Beattyville, Kentucky, Elementary School, Lee Country Family Resource Center director Sherry Lanham has seen it all – students coming to school in the dead of winter with a just a sweatshirt or thin sweater to keep them warm.

This fall, thanks to the supporters of Americans Helping Americans® every child in grades K-5 (and some in grades 6-8) was able to receive a heavy winter coat provided by Americans Helping Americans®.

“The coats were such a valuable gift our students,” said resource center director Sherry Lanham. “One girl was still wearing the one she had gotten last year from Americans Helping Americans® even though it was clearly too small for her now.

“She has very little heat in her home and she and her brother sleep in their coats at night,” Sherry added. “She was overjoyed to get a new coat.

More than 80 percent of the children who attend Beattyville Elementary, where the resource center is located, are living at the poverty level and many never receive a new coat – other than the ones provided by Americans Helping Americans®.

“Winters in Kentucky can be very cold and snowy and without these coats many of our children would have been waiting for buses in the cold and bad weather. These coats were truly a blessing.”