Cold weather has arrived in Santa Barbara County, and weather experts are predicting a strong El Niño this winter. Santa Barbara County’s poverty rate is 18 percent. Many local people, including children, don’t have coats because they can’t afford them.

Sasha Ablitt, owner of Ablitt’s Fine Cleaners & Launderers, and Trudi Carey, president of the Carey Group of Santa Barbara, are coordinating a “coat drive” with the One Warm Coat nonprofit organization. Now through Dec. 5, community members are asked to donate any extra coats in their closets. The donated coats will be distributed to the needy.

The drop-off location is Ablitt’s Fine Cleaners & Launderers, 14 W. Gutierrez St. in downtown Santa Barbara.

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