Remarks During a Visit With Volunteers of the One Warm Coat Service Project,
December 22, 2008

The President. Listen, Laura and I are here with the Mayor and other volunteers who are just trying to make a difference in one person’s life. And today we’re honoring a project called One Warm Coat. And it’s an effort—a nationwide effort to convince our fellow citizens to contribute a used, but not overly used, coat to help a soul who may need to be warm this winter.

I think there’s 2,000 chapters nationwide. The program was started by this lady right here—who is the ultimate social entrepreneur—and until 1992, this was operated out of San Francisco. And today it’s—as I said, there’s 2,000 coat drives. If you want to help, you can get on the web page and call onewarmcoat.org—call it up on your computer.

A couple of examples, or a couple of reasons why we’ve come—and one such example is the great example of how a single citizen, and eventually a group of citizens, can make a difference, positive difference; that our communities are enriched by programs such as these.

We’re also here, by the way, at the headquarters for Pathway to Housing, which is a program of—all aimed at helping the homeless find a place to live.

And I want to thank, Mr. Mayor, your leadership—and all of you all for being involved in this vital program.

If you want to serve your Nation, you can find a lot of ways to serve. And I hope you do. I hope you realize the great blessings that come when you put your heart and soul into making somebody else’s life better.

And so, Mr. Mayor, Laura and I wish you and the citizens of this fine city a happy holidays, and thank you for joining us today.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty of Washington, DC. Thank you. Thank you for the donations from your White House staff and yourself personally.

The President. A hundred and fifty coats—I’m so pleased that those good souls who Laura and I work with agreed to contribute.

Anyway, thank you all.

The First Lady. Happy holidays. Thank you.

The President. All get a team picture—come on. Come on, Laura; soldiers in the army of compassion.

Note: The President spoke at 11:13 a.m. at Pathways to Housing DC. In his remarks, he referred to Lois Pavlow, founder, and Sherri Lewis Wood, national coordinator, One Warm Coat. A portion of these remarks could not be verified because the tape was incomplete.