The spirit of giving continues into the New Year at DU as students, faculty and staff donate winter clothing items for the Denver Rescue Mission as part of the Staff Advisory Council’s second annual “Pioneers for People” coat drive.

The council, along with a number of student groups, is asking the DU community to bring coats, hats, gloves, scarves and any other winter accessories to one of more than 16 drop-off locations around campus.

The coat drive began last week and will continue through next Monday.

Donated clothes will be taken to the Rescue Mission on Friday, but council member Karl French encourages students to donate even after that deadline.

“One hundred and four people died in Denver,while homeless in 2007,” said French. “Some of these deaths were likely from exposure. Just a simple act like giving a hat can make a big difference.”

He added, “The only way an event like this can work is if it’s a community event. The greater the contribution the better.”

This is a way for the Staff Advisory Council to “give back to the community as a whole and not just the DU community,” said Stephanie Panion, council president.

Last year, the council collected three carloads of clothing for the Denver Rescue Mission. The goal this year is to surpass that.

“Each person’s life has value,” said French. He added, homelessness is a “social problem that needs to be addressed” through such collections as the coat drive.

The Denver Rescue Mission provides food, shelter, clothing and practical programs of education and work discipline to the homeless of Denver. According to its mission statement, the goal is to return “the poor, needy, and homeless to society as self-sufficient, productive citizens.”

To find out more about the coat drive, including drop-off locations, visit www.du.edu/staff/.