ASHLAND, Ore. — NewsWatch 12's annual Coats for Kids campaign kicked off on Monday morning by delivering dozens of coat collection barrels to locations across Southern Oregon.

The aim of the campaign is to bring together warm winter coats for children and families that might otherwise be unable to afford them.

NewsWatch 12 has partnered with real estate agents from Windermere and Remax for the campaign.

"All the locations are being dropped off today, our agents will — throughout the week — go pick up the coats, bring them back to the station," said Devon Zupan with Windermere. "They sort them out there, put the new ones in one pile, the lightly used ones in another, and they take the lightly used ones to the cleaners to get cleaned. Then we'll reconvene, take them to the station, sort them, bundle them, and get them ready to take out to the schools. And then the very best part, we get to take them out to the schools and give them to the kids."

A portion of each Windermere agent's commission will also go to the Windermere Foundation. Those funds will stay in the greater Medford area — eventually becoming contributions to CASA, the Children's Advocacy Center, and a number of other important local organizations.

All of the real estate agents helping with Coats for Kids work as volunteers and donate their time to the campaign.

Check out the Coats for Kids page on our website for a map with every drop-off location in Southern Oregon.