Annual free coat giveaway set for Black Friday on R.I. State House lawn

Every November, Lauren Testoni climbs into a 26-foot U-Haul with a friend or family member and drives across Rhode Island collecting coats and other winter gear, all of which are stored at her family’s East Greenwich home until the next morning.

Then on the Friday after Thanksgiving, the U-Haul delivers the donations to the State House lawn for the annual Buy Nothing Day Coat Exchange. Coats, hats, gloves, scarves and socks are given away for free to anyone who needs them — often unhoused people, refugees and low-income families.

“People need a leg up and this is their first way to do that,” Testoni said in an interview. “It literally keeps people alive in the winter to have a coat.”

This year’s exchange will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 28, outside the State House, on the lawn facing the Providence Place mall.

The annual Black Friday tradition dates back to 1997 when local activist Greg Gerritt and some friends wanted to highlight the problems with consumerism while also doing something useful for the community, Testoni said.

It’s part of the reason the event has been held on the State House lawn, which lies directly across the street from Providence Place where shoppers are looking for holiday deals.

“It’s absolutely there to make a statement,” Testoni said. “We have to be prepared for anything to happen. We have to be prepared to help each other. We have to be prepared to stand together as a community.”

Volunteers send out the initial call for donations on Labor Day weekend before setting up collection locations. 

When she stopped at CARJON Air Conditioning and Heating in Smithfield late Tuesday afternoon, Testoni collected 567 coats — the largest single-site donation she’s picked up in her 15 years helping with the exchange.

“We’ve been busy elves,” Chris Collette, CARJON’s sales team manager, said. “We were happy to get a decent amount to be able to help people.”

Collette said he and coworkers felt it was especially important to collect winter gear this year amid the recent pause in federal food benefits.

Testoni doesn’t have any firm number on how many items get distributed at the annual coat exchange. She said she just knows that it’s in the hundreds. Which leaves plenty of leftover coats, which she said are then given to the Mathewson Street United Methodist Church in Providence where they can be distributed to people in need..

While rewarding, Testoni said it’s challenging to constantly see hundreds of people line up for a coat.

“I hate that we have to do it, but I’m glad there are people who step up,” she said. “We’ve never gone without coats.”

Testoni has acknowledged recent state investments in trying to keep Rhode Islanders warm this coming winter. In late October, Gov. Dan McKee’s administration committed over $1.7 million in grants to municipalities and nonprofit service providers to expand Rhode Island’s network of warming centers and homeless shelters.

But as long as the need continues to keep Rhode Islanders warm, Testoni said organizers will continue to distribute coats.

“With a simple twist of fate or loss of a job, any one of us can be standing there waiting for a coat,” she said.