October was a month of exciting firsts for Eagan High School: Girl’s soccer won first in state, and two weeks ago, Eagan’s Interact Club held its first ever charity coat drive. Over the course of the drive, a total of 112 coats were donated by Eagan students and community members.

The coats will be donated to the Salvation Army for those in need. Mr. Wirsbinski, the advisor of the Interact Club and a Geometry and Honors Algebra 2 teacher, explained, “We did an email out to the community. I think some people’s parents just brought in big bags of coats… They just started appearing. We had bags and bags. I talked to a spokesperson for the Salvation Army… She was really happy with getting coats. She said the need is still there, and especially for young people and kids.”

The idea for the coat drive was proposed by senior Brenna Steichen, the president of the club. “We talked about it amongst our leaders and thought, ‘There’s a need, and it might be something that people could easily do,’” said Mr. Wirsbinski. “Because quite honestly, everybody’s got a couple of coats at home that they don’t wear anymore. If you wear it once a year, you can give it to somebody and they might wear it everyday. It was Brenna’s idea, and the rest of us supported her on it.”

The Interact Club is happy with the success of its project, and plans to hold a second coat drive next year. “It was pretty impressive,” summed up Mr. Wirsbinski. “We’ll do it again, and we’ll rethink how we might do it differently. Maybe we’d have a PAWS competition.” Eagan High School will no doubt be just as generous in future charity events as it was in this one.