SLV Health holds coat drive for community

SLV Health held a winter coat drive, and more than 250 items were collected by employees and cleaned by Weiss Dry Cleaning. The items will be distributed throughout Alamosa and Conejos counties. Shown here are employees from the Conejos County Hospital environmental services team, maintenance team, administration, the Conejos County EMS team and Dan Marquez, owner of Weiss Dry Cleaning.

San Luis Valley Health, which has a number of clinics throughout the San Luis Valley as well as the SLV Health Regional Medical Center in Alamosa and Conejos County Hospital in La Jara, recently held a coat drive and the employees and their families donated more than 250 coats and other items.

Because of the COVID pandemic, the items were taken directly to Weiss Dry Cleaning in Alamosa, who volunteered to clean and package every item for distribution. The SLVH Conejos County Hospital maintenance department picked up each load of coats as they were prepared.

“We will be distributing the items to the local food banks in both Conejos and Alamosa County,” explained Whitney Beiriger, executive assistant at Conejos County Hospital. “These coats will be given to a variety of community members who are needing a little extra warmth this time of year.”

Conejos County Hospital Administrator Zach Weiderspon wanted to thank everyone who participated in the coat drive. “It goes without saying that this year has been challenging for all of us, so we are so appreciative of everyone who participated,” Weiderspon said. “We would also like to extend a special thank you to Dan Marquez and the employees at Weiss Dry Cleaning for all of their hard work on getting these items cleaned and ready to hand out.”