Hudaceks, 2009 host family, offer a 'side' of coats
Published: November 8, 2009
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Butch Comegys / Staff Photographer For a Thanksgiving Service Project, Chas Hudacek, 17, a senior at Scranton Preparatory School, is collecting coats and gloves for the Family to Family program at Scranton Cultural Center at The Masonic Temple.
If Chas Hudacek has come to realize anything in his young life, it's the value of a good winter coat.
For nearly a decade now, the Moosic teenager and his family have overseen the coat giveaway at the Family to Family Thanksgiving basket program. Over that time, they've given away close to 20,000 coats, including about 3,000 each of the past three years.
The coat giveaway has made a terrific complement to Family to Family, now in its 23rd year. As always, this year's event will be held the day before Thanksgiving, Wednesday, Nov. 25, at Scranton Cultural Center at The Masonic Temple.
There, more than 650 volunteers will hand out 2,800 baskets - filled with turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, fresh vegetables and all the other fixings found in a traditional Thanksgiving meal - to about 12,000 low-income people, more than half of whom are children.
The total food bill is expected to exceed $80,000, according to Mary Lou Burne, who founded the program with her husband, Dr. Jim Burne, and their four children.
Since its start, the program has fed about 250,000 people, with donations typically coming from more than 2,000 local families.
"The point is to keep families together for Thanksgiving. To have the smells of the turkey cooking and all that," Mrs. Burne said. "It's amazing the stories I hear of what people do with this food."
The Hudaceks were selected to be this year's designated host family. They've long been among the regulars who turn out at the crack of dawn to prepare and distribute the baskets.
"They started out just giving out bread and stuffing cubes. They worked as a family and they stayed for a few hours, and they got hooked," Mrs. Burne said. "They really are great people."
Their value to the cause has only grown with the success of the coat drive, she said.
"It's just grown and grown. These poor people, every time they go out their door there's more coats on their porch," Mrs. Burne said with a laugh.
"When people come in for the baskets, they have this stress in their face, like, 'Am I going to get this food?'" she continued. "And by the time they get their bags and they're going out the exit door, they're not smiling, but the stress is gone. And then they're given the coat, and they have a smile on their face. It kind of completes the whole deal."
"They're very hesitant at first, almost in awe that they can take (the coat)," Chas said. "They're very modest people."
Now 17 and a senior at Scranton Preparatory School, Chas was still in elementary school when he and his older brother, Stephen, came up with the idea for the coat drive while volunteering at the event one year.
As he and his family handed out baskets, Chas took notice of a single mother and her three children. The kids had jackets, but they were hardly appropriate for the weather. The mom, meanwhile, had no coat at all.
Chas thought to himself, Did she forget her coat, or was she so poor she simply couldn't afford one?
"It was astounding," Chas said.
One of the volunteers eventually offered up her red wool coat, and with that Chas and his brother, who now lives in Baltimore, were off and running, with a good deal of assistance from their parents, Stephen and Sharon Hudacek.
The first year, the Hudaceks rounded up 200 coats, mostly through scouring their neighborhood and local churches, and buying whatever they could find at the Salvation Army.
From there, their network extended to include UNICO, St. Joseph's Church in Minooka and area schools like Marian Catholic and St. Paul's, which hold "dress down" days for the cause. When the operation outgrew the Hudaceks' living room, the owners of Andrew Brown's Drug Store in South Scranton found them suitable storage space at St. John the Evangelist Church on Pittston Avenue.
The Hudaceks usually begin their collection in the spring, with children's coats their most cherished item. They also take gloves and scarves.
They won't take just any coat - torn and tattered ones are unacceptable.
"The last thing you want to offer is a ripped coat," Mrs. Hudacek said. "Most of the time, we get really nice coats."
Some even come brand new with the tags still on them, including several $300 Italian leather coats that were donated last year. Another year, a man showed up with his dead wife's cherished fur coat.
"He was saying someone would love this coat. I thought, 'I would love this coat,'" Mrs. Hudacek said with a laugh.
Like Family to Family, the coat giveaway itself has come to include a core group of regulars who assist the Hudaceks, including many of Chas' fellow students at Prep.
"They could be off on their time doing something else, but they come and help me," said Chas, who can be found most days after school off in search of coats.
"One woman who is there every year, she's just Mary," Mr. Hudacek said.
"We don't even know where she comes from," Chas added.
Every year, Chas goes into the day wondering how they're possibly going to get rid of so many coats. Come that afternoon, though, he's always pleasantly surprised.
"It's an experience," Chas said. "It humbles you and makes you appreciate what you have."
"One of the major things to teach your kids is to give back. And they get it," Mrs. Hudacek said. "We get so much out of this. Our children know what it's like to give back.
"It doesn't take much to make a difference. They're just warm old coats, but to someone who doesn't have one, it's a big deal."
Contact the writer: jmcauliffe@timesshamrock.com How to help
Donations are still needed for this year's Family to Family program. A donation of $25 covers the cost of one Thanksgiving basket. Checks can be made out to Family to Family and sent to: Family to Family, 444 Orchard St., Scranton, Pa. 18505.
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