On Saturday, November 16th, the City and County sponsored a coat, costume and shoe drive in celebration of America Recycles Day (ARD) at Redwood Plaza Shopping Center (adjacent to old Vallerga’s Market location). Residents were asked to bring in “gently used” coats and costumes or shoes (in any condition) in exchange for an indoor recycling bin or kitchen compost pail for their home or business.
This year, approximately 730 coats (about 100 more than 2018 event) and 50 costumes were collected during the four-hour event. Salvation Army received the coats and will distribute the coats to needy families over the next few weeks, particularly at their Thanksgiving celebration. The collected costumes will become part of the City’s Halloween costume exchange next year.
For the fourth year, the Napa ARD event also included collection of used shoes. The results and community participation was significant as 1,167 and ½ pairs were collected (345 more pairs than last year’s event). The collected shoes will be shipped to a non-profit organization called “Soles4Souls” (see www.soles4soles.org for more information) that distributes used shoes to disaster victims and/or disadvantaged people in this country and abroad. This organization will even find homes for single shoes (as they serve one-footed clients as well) and will recycle any shoe beyond use or repair. Beyond City and County staff, this year’s event also benefited from several volunteers from Napa High School and Napa Girl Scout troop #20035.