BOE Member Donates 75 New Coats to Needy Bloomfield Children

Seventy five Bloomfield students will stay warm this winter thanks to the a newly re-elected Board of Education member. 

Lifetime Bloomfield resident Dianna Fuller has donated over 75 brand new winter coats, hat, gloves, and scarves this year to needy children in the Bloomfield School district through her “Alice’s Coats” initiative. 

Ms. Fuller started Alice’s Coat’s in 2011 and over the past three years has donated over 150 brand new coats. 

Alice’s Coats is named after her mother Alice Fuller.
"My mom was a single mother but made sure we had new coats every Christmas and spring," Fuller said in an email. "She wore the same coat over and over and I didn't realize that until after I was older." 

Fuller said she was concerned about the social stigma associated with worn or out-of-style fashion and ensured that all the donations would be new.

"Kids want something new," she said. "It's theirs and not passed on from their brothers and sisters."

Fuller said donations came from local residents as well as friends from as far away as Florida, Maryland and Kentucky. 

Ms. Fuller has already set her sights on next year’s goal. “I want to be able to donate 100 coats to three or four schools.”