KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — A Southwest Michigan teen is expecting to collect more than 3,500 blankets this year to distibute to area homeless people.
13-year-old Samuel VerHage was inspired to start collecting blankets after witnessing homelessness during the Jesus Loves Kalamazoo event in 2015.
VerHage collects blankets throughout the year, which are then organized and put away in a storage unit until it is time to distribute them.
Organizers say that VerHage has exceeded goals for each year since he began collecting. In 2018 he hoped to collect 1,800 but eventually exceeded that with a total of 2,585 blankets.
His goal for 2019 was to collect 3,000 blankets. He has already collected over 3,500, according to organizers.
Free blankets will be handed out to those in need at 2 P.M. on Friday, November 29th at Martin Luther King Memorial Park in Downtown Kalamazoo.
Anyone that would like to donate can bring blankets and sleeping bags to one of dozens of dropbox locations in the area or go to Samuelsblankets.org
