More cold is coming. Community leaders preparing students for freezing temperatures

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More cold is coming. Community leaders preparing students for freezing temperatures

Northwest Florida was hit by a cold front last week that brought record-setting levels of snowfall and ice, leading to businesses closing and locals, mostly, being forced to stay in their homes.

Another storm is set to hit the sunshine state next week, and while it won’t compare to the historic cold we saw earlier this month, local leaders want to be sure children in our area stay warm.

Florida Rep. Michelle Salzman is working with Jubilee Church, Sunshine Health and Lincoln Park Elementary School to host a clothing drive on Friday to protect its students from the cold. Salzman and Tim Fox, lead pastor of Jubilee Church, discussed a similar event prior to last week’s cold weather, and after seeing how hard last week’s weather hit some members of the community, Salzman and Fox decided to carry out the event as soon as possible.

“The realization hit us that there’s still a need,” Fox said.

Florida’s next possible storm: Major cross-country storm will travel nearly 2,600 miles by weekend. See Florida impacts

Every child at Lincoln Park Elementary School − which has over 200 students − will receive a coat and a pair of gloves, but Salzman and Fox want to ensure they each get socks and a hat as well. Splash City Adventures plans to give each family a free pass to their theme park on Pensacola Boulevard as well.

“We wanted to make an impact but we didn’t want to go to the elementary school and only give a few people the coat,” Salzman said. “We wanted to make sure that if we did it, all kids could be participating … we’re just trying to create love on these kids because they don’t get it that much.”

At noon, Principal Jobenna Lawson-Sellers will hand out the supplies to Lincoln Park Elementary students in the school gym.

Salzman is asking potential donors to contribute by providing a coat or cash to purchase other clothing needs. If you would like to contribute, you can

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through Salzman’s

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or drop off coats at 10296 Vintage Drive.

“For us… being able to provide simple things like a warm coat, that’s just something that I believe is the minimum of what we could do,” Fox said. “Anything we can do to ensure that a child does not get cold, we’re going to do it.”

The upcoming winter storm is currently forecast to bring rain and thunderstorms to North and Central Florida on Friday and Saturday. Florida’s current spring-like weather won’t see any impacts beyond a small cold front that is bringing milder temperatures to Northwest Florida Tuesday.

Fox told the News Journal that what he saw last week prompted him to act before the next wave of cold weather hits.

“The reality of where we’re at, in terms of just families struggling, many of them (are) struggling to meet all of the bills that have come across their mailbox,” Fox continued. “Then to be hit with potentially high power bills, having to stock up on food and all the (responses) when there’s a disaster coming … it puts more pressure on you.”

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal:

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