The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Koats for Kids warm campaign in bitter winter Dawn Melville, a partâ€"time employee at Sketchliey Cleaners in Beechwood Plaza, volunteers her time to mend a coat for "Koats for Kids". Rodney Gilchrist Chronicle Staff To watch a child grow is one of life‘s true'foys. But to see a child who has grown out of his winter coat and has no coat to replace it unprotected from the cold and wet, is sad enough to break the heart of Scrooge himself. Children without winter coats is a harsh reality for some families. Too often clothes must take third place on the list of necessities in a poor household where it‘s a constant struggle just to pay the rent and keep everyone fed. Locally and throughout the province Sketchley Cleaners and the United Way have joined together to bring warmth to what would otherwise be a cold, dreary winter for thousands of children. Through the "Koats for Kids" campaign, Sketchley Cleaners are gathering old coats, mending and cleaning them, then sending them to the United Way to be distributâ€" Created five years ago in London, the campaign supplies free coats to anyone who needs one. Last year over 30,000 coats were distributed in Ontario. With approximately 125 stores in Ontario (25 in the Kâ€"W area), Sketchley has been gathering coats since Nov. 13, and will continue to do so until Dec. 31. Rhonda Clinch is the store supervisor at Sketchley Cleaners in Beechwood Plaza â€" one of four stores in Waterâ€" loo. ‘"So far the response has been great," said Clinch. ‘"We‘re not getting just kids coats, but coats for adults as well. It gives you a good feeling." ‘"What else can you do with an old coat that could mean so much?" said Clinch. Joan Fuller, a Waterloo resident who drops her family‘s and friends‘ coats off every year, believes the "Koats for Kids" campaign to be the best of its kind. "I like it (‘"‘Koats for Kids") because they clean and repair the coats before giving them away," said Fuller. ‘"No one else does that." If you have an old coat around the house, don‘t throw it away, drop it off the nearest Sketchley Cleaners â€" they‘ll find a new home for it, on the shoulders of a needy child. For information on how to get a coat through "Koats for Kids", call the United Way at 886â€"9100. But with the Christmas season comes help for those in Rodney Gilchrist photo Melodee Martinuk Chronicle Staff With Christmas only weeks away, a local group is moving into high gear on a campaign designed to discourage parents from buying war and other violent toys. Made up of representatives from the Global Community Cenâ€" tre, Sterling Peace and Justice Group, Mennonite Central Comâ€" mittee, Ploughshares Waterloo Region, and concerned parents, the Kâ€"W Alternative Toys Camâ€" paign is working to create "an awareness amongst parents of the need to look at what we are buying for our children, and the effect those toys are having on our children,"‘ said spokesperson Irene O‘Toole. The campaign was launched in September. Members will speak to parents‘ groups, youth clubs, neighborhood associations and other organizations to get their message across. To reach youngâ€" sters they developed a coloring contest requiring children to draw their favorite nonâ€"violent toys. ‘"We have to understand when we‘re buying toys, it‘s a lifestyle thing. What a child has in its toybox has a great effect on who that child is and how he will behave," said O‘Toole. "Based on the assumption that play is a child‘s equivalent to work, we A pedestrian makes a dash across Bridgeport Road near Devitt Avenue. Rogney Giichrist photo Waterloo City Council‘s decision to not erect signal traffic lights at Bridgeport Road and Devitt Avenue has met with mixed reaction from nearby residents, who recently presented council with a petition containing more than 100 signatures for such an installation. The petition expressed the residents‘ concern for the safety of pedestrians who try to cross the heavilyâ€"travelled Bridgeport Road at the intersecâ€" tion by the Tower‘s Plaza â€" especially those who are senior citizens. Instead, council has asked regional engineers to come up with a way to create gaps in traffic as a possible solution to the problem. â€" _ The motion by Ald. Dorothy Schnarr to install the signals â€" which would have cost the city $35,000 to install without a subsidy from the Region â€" lacked a seconder at council during their Dec. 1 meeting. Marg Danard, one of the residents who presented Alternative group hopes to discourage parents from buying violent toys Devitt area residents express mixed reaction to latest council move Don Whitehead and Irene O‘Toole demonstrate the type of alternative toy the Kâ€"W Alternative Toy Campaign urges parents to buy this Christmas. Melodee Martinuk photo really have to take a close look at _ out of the top five selling toys are what we‘re training our children _ violent. War toys, she said, are for." not only the least creative on the According to O‘Toole, sales of _ market ("it‘s all bang, bang, war toys have jumped by some â€" you‘re dead...there‘s nothing you According to O‘Toole, sales of war toys have jumped by some 500 per cent since 1982, and four WATERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1986 â€" PAGE 3 ‘"‘They haven‘t said nothing will be done," said Danard. ‘"They are looking at alternatives, like creating gaps in the traffic or hiring crossing guards." the petition to council, believes some progress has been made. ‘"‘The majority of the people who live in this area are seniors who are 70 and older," said Danard. "It‘s a shame that so many of them live close to the shopping mall and can‘t use it without the risk of crossing Bridgeport Road." Leo Fehrenbach, an 86â€"yearâ€"old nearby resident with a sight impairment, believes that anything short of signal lights isn‘t enough. Danard considers the safety of seniors in the area to be the main issue for concern. ‘"‘They told us ‘if you want the lights you‘ll have to pay for them yourselves‘," said Fehrenbach. ‘‘Well you just watch â€" someone‘s going to get hurt." (Continued on page 4)