MADISON – Showing Madison’s volunteer spirit, a joint fundraiser between Rotary Club of Madison and Jets Theatre students at James Clemens High School will comfort children this winter.

Madison Rotarians asked Jets Theatre students to help with “Operation Warm,” a service project to provide winter coats to children in need. “The initial goal is to raise $600 and provide 30 coats to young children in need before Thanksgiving this year,” Rotarian publicist Carla Daily said.

In 1998, Dick Sanford and his Rotary Club in Pennsylvania founded Operation Warm. Today, more than 230 clubs and 50 districts collaborate with Operation Warm to supply children’s coats.

Jets Theatre Director Amy Patel, who’s married to Rotary Past President Sandy Patel, learned about Operation Warm at the 2017 Rotary International Conference in Atlanta. Ironically, Patel’s students are performing “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” for the 2018 spring musical.

“Each year, Amy Patel ties a service project to the main production. This school year, Amy and her students elected to start early and work to raise funds to provide coats to kids,” Daily said. “Our amazing Madison Rotarians stepped up and jumped at the chance to work with these young leaders and the local school theatre program to execute this service project.”

“After all, Jacob loved Joseph so much that he gave him a COAT,” Pugh said.

Rotary Club of Madison committed $340 that they collected during Madison Street Festival on Oct. 7 for this project. The Rotary Interact Clubs at James Clemens and Bob Jones high schools also assisted at MSF.

“Our club has designated funds for each of these groups,” Daily said. “We plan to seek a partnership with the Interact clubs and allocate the remaining $260 to reach our initial $600 goal.”

During the winter, Rotarians will continue to raise funds and finish with an information booth and fundraising push at performances of “Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat” at James Clemens in spring 2018. “We hope to raise funds to provide at least 100 coats to kids this Rotary year,” Daily said.

For information, visit give.operationwarm.org or Facebook pages for James Clemens Theatre, Rotary Club of Madison or Operation Warm.