Nacogdoches County church gives out free winter gear at fall festival

NACOGDOCHES, Texas (KTRE) - Winter is getting closer and so is the need to prepare for cooler weather.

A Nacogdoches County church got an early start by providing free winter gear to families at their annual fall festival on the Nacogdoches downtown square.

Making sure families have what they need is the church’s top priority.

Stonewall Baptist Church Pastor Desmond Tolbert said this year they decided to have their fourth annual fall festival in Nacogdoches.

He said, “We started giving away our coats out in Douglass at our church, and it was just so far for people to drive.”

Tolbert said the point of this event is to help keep the people of Nacogdoches and East Texas warm.

“We know that gas prices are up, rent is up and utility bills are up, so we want to do everything we can to help people during the winter,” he said.

Tolbert said they gave about 300 coats away.

“They have to register, put sizes on there. We have a couple of 3x’s, 4x’s for some larger kids, or if we don’t have those sizes, we’re going to deliver those sizes to those kids in the next week,” said Tolbert.

President of the Upsilon Zeta Omega chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Tammy Pritchett said she’s glad to support the coat giveaway for the children.

“We don’t want them to have anything to hold them back, and if we can give them a coat to keep them warm during the winter, we’re all about that,” she said.

Pritchett said serving the community is their sorority’s biggest initiative this year.

“We look for any opportunity that we can to uplift our community, and this is just one of the ways that we are able to do that,” she said.

Tolbert said their church is all about giving back.

“I believe that we have to let people know really what Christ is about, everything Jesus has done. He gave back to everybody. He didn’t do nothing for himself. Everything he done was for somebody else, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do in Nacogdoches Texas,” he said.

Tolbert said they’ll continue providing winter gear until December.

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