Arctic Oil & Gas Directory: Lynden donates transportation for kids coat drive

As reported on the Salvation Army Alaska Division website Dec. 20, Fred Meyer and Lynden Transport were joined by Gov. Parnell and Mayor Sullivan to announce a partnership, Freddy’s Coats for Kids, which will provide coats and snow pants for thousands of Alaska kids in communities including Anchorage, Fairbanks, Kenai, Juneau and the Mat-Su.

Fred Meyer Stores teamed with iApparel — which manufactures the brands iExtreme and Pink Platinum for Fred Meyer — to purchase the coats and snow pants for $100,000. Lynden Transport stepped up to get the 10,000 coats and 4,000 pairs of snow pants to Alaska. The Salvation Army agreed to receive the full two semi-trailers — one 52 feet and the other 23 feet — and worked with Lynden to get the merchandise to as many Alaska communities as possible.

Lynden Transport donated more than $10,000 in transportation, getting the coats from Tacoma, Wash., to The Salvation Army warehouse in Anchorage and working with The Salvation Army to get the coats to facilities in Juneau, Fairbanks and Kenai. Additionally, The Salvation Army will distribute coats to Haines, Hoonah, Angoon, Kake, Wrangell, Sitka and Petersburg. In Juneau, Kenai, Fairbanks, Anchorage and the Mat-Su, The Salvation Army will make the coats available as part of their regular Christmas assistance programs.

“Alaska has been such an amazing place to do business,” said Norm Mills, vice president and regional director of sales for Fred Meyer Stores for Alaska. “We polled our employees about a year ago and asked what we could do to give back, and the resounding answer was to put coats on kids.”