By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

Local do-gooders are turning to charity to keep the less fortunate bundled up and warm this winter.

Andrea Raquel Clymire, community school coordinator for Pittsville Elementary and Middle School and Mrs. Delmarva 2025, and her daughter, Delmarva’s Young Miss Ocean Pines, are helping the Miss Delmarva Pageant Series collect hats, coats, gloves, mittens, socks, and scarves for Be the Sunshine’s Warm Hands, Warm Hearts Winter Clothing Drive.

Be the Sunshine is a regional “motivational and inspirational program with the goal of teaching others to spread positive energy and kindness,” according to its Facebook page. The organization is collecting winter gear for its 11th annual drive in collaboration with the Delmarva pageant group.

Clymire and her 10-year-old daughter are aiding the charitable effort. Gently used or new items can be dropped off at boxes located at Caprichos Books in Ocean Pines, Chesapeake Martial Arts in Ocean Pines, or Twisters Gymnastics in Berlin. Hats, scarves, coats, and “anything that can keep people warm in the winter” are appreciated, Clymire said.

New items will go to the Salisbury Elks Lodge, and used pieces will be donated to local homeless shelters like Diakonia and the Salisbury-based HALO Ministry. The community school coordinator asks that previously worn clothing be washed prior to donation.

Clymire said anything dropped off at the three locations through Dec. 7 will be donated to the Be the Sunshine’s Warm Hands, Warm Hearts program. Mrs. Delmarva added that she will collect winter wear throughout the chilly season and that items garnered after Dec. 7 will be given to Diakonia.

“I try to do a lot of community service,” Clymire said. “That’s how I got involved in Miss Delmarva. My daughter started competing, and they are very community service oriented. I am also a very ‘give back to the community and thankful for what you have’ type of person.”

The winter donation program is on par with Clymire’s position as a community school coordinator in Wicomico County, which she notes is her “dream job.”

The do-gooder added that a community school is a model that creates public schools as hubs for a neighborhood and the facility’s surrounding areas. Programs like food distributions are implemented to meet the needs of a community. Clymire’s effort with the Warm Hands, Warm Hearts initiative speaks to her dedication to helping the less fortunate.

“I hope [the drive] brings some level of compassion,” she said. “Nobody is living on the streets because they want to…people end up in these situations. Some women are fleeing domestic violence. In these situations, it’s not just physical abuse. It’s also financial abuse where these women have no control over their finances, and they have no resources, and they have to build their lives from the bottom up. These are small things we can give to someone to keep them warm. The least we can do is to provide some level of warmth and compassion.”