COATS FOR KIDS PROGRAM WARMING HEARTS.

Byline: Dennis McCarthy 

It was a beautiful sight to behold, Adrian Kirman says. Hundreds of kids, who live in the low-income apartment complexes that ring Langdon Avenue Elementary School in North Hills, coming to school on a cold winter morning last year wearing big, warm coats.

Maybe at most other schools in the San Fernando Valley it wouldn't be a big deal. But here at Langdon, the sight of every pupil bundled up against the cold was definitely a sight to behold, the assistant principal says.

A wonderful sight after too many winters of looking out on that schoolyard at children wearing paper-thin, worn jackets as if it didn't get chilly on winter mornings even in Southern California.

``They were all running around on the playground comparing their new coats with each other, just loving them,'' says Kirman. ``It was a beautiful sight.

``You have to remember, these are kids with very little. At Langdon, every student gets a free breakfast and lunch. All of them. Their parents were so grateful for those coats.''

You trace the coats back to where they came from and you find most of them hanging in the back of closets of school kids in the Valley whose parents have the money to pay for a lunch at school or have their child bring one from home.

Kids who have never gone to school hungry or in worn, threadbare jackets.

Kids, like the students over at Chaminade Intermediate School in Chatsworth, who are learning a little about life on the other side of the tracks these days because of a wonderful program the school has been dedicated to since the first coat was handed out three years ago.

It's called Coats for Kids and it allows children with more than enough to reach out and help youngsters with not enough.

More than 40 schools in the Valley hold drives every year for their students to donate the coats they've outgrown to kids who need them, but Chaminade always leads the pack, says Capt. James Sloan of the Salvation Army, which sponsors the program with the Woodland Hills Rotary Club.

``It is incredible how the kids at Chaminade rally to help the kids at other schools who need these coats,'' Sloan said.

Maria Landgraf looks down at six bulging, 45-gallon plastic bags in the corner of her office Wednesday.

``We've already collected well over 100 coats and we're only at the midway point,'' says Landgraf, who helps run Chaminade's campus ministry. ``The big push will come this weekend.''

All of the 650 or so students at Chaminade are required to put in 15 to 30 hours a year in community service, depending on their grade level.

These coats are worth half an hour toward that service, but that's not the reason the students stop by Landgraf's office in the morning to drop off these coats they've outgrown.

``They may not know the kids who will be getting their coats, but they know why they're getting them,'' Landgraf says.

``They know they'll be going to kids who don't have the same opportunities they have. Don't have parents who can afford to buy them brand new coats every year when they outgrow the old ones.''

On Wednesday, trucks from the Salvation Army offices in Canoga Park will head out in the Valley to stop by 41 campuses to pick up thousands of coats donated by families of kids going to those schools.

The coats will be taken back to the Salvation Army headquarters, and with the help of members of the Rotary of Woodland Hills, they'll be put into size piles and distributed to more than 1,800 kids at 10 schools in the Valley.

Schools where teachers and administrators, like Adrian Kirman, again will have the chance to behold a beautiful sight this winter.

Every one of their kids coming to school on cold mornings bundled up in warm coats.

If you'd like to donate garments to the Coats for Kids program, drop them off before Oct. 28 at the Salvation Army's headquarters, 21375 Roscoe Blvd., Canoga Park.