Harold Hawkins wants to spread the warmth.

He’s collecting coats for people who might otherwise be left in the cold.

The coats he gives to Springs Rescue Mission to distribute are not a crumpled mess stuffed in trash bags, either. Every garment is freshly cleaned and plastic wrapped on a hanger.

After all, Hawkins is a dry cleaner.

As owner of Continental Cleaners, he’s in a perfect position to have a coat drive, he said.His only regret: not doing it sooner.

“A couple years ago, I said, ‘I’m going to do a coat drive.’ And I didn’t do it. Then the next year I said, ‘I’m going to do a coat drive.’ And I didn’t do it,” he said.

“Then last year I got one of those big boxes from one of our suppliers and I thought, this is the perfect box.”

So he did it.

“I decorated it like a big present and put “Coat drive’ on it and put it by the window.”

He hoped to get few dozen coats from customers at his busy shop at Crossroads at Citadel plaza.

“It was amazing. Every two or three days that box would be jam-packed with coats. We’d clean them and we’d put it back out there and they’d jam-pack it again,” he said.

He collected about 160 coats plus many sweaters, scarves, gloves and mittens. The haul was so big he needed the mission van to come pick it up.

“I hope this year we can do as well,” he said. “There are so many nice coats that people have stuffed in their closets that they’re never going to wear.”

So far, he has collected about 25 coats and sweaters. Donations range from a new jacket with tags on it to a rugged L.L. Bean coat in dire need of a good cleaning.

“I’ll take any coats,” he said. “I hate to see children without coats.”

The store will also clean linens and blankets. “Anything they want to donate that would do good for people this time of year, we’d be glad to take,” he said.

Hawkins, 60, got into dry cleaning through his wife Judy’s uncle, who had shops in California.

“For 20 years I was in the computer business. I developed software for oil companies,” he said.

Hawkins opened the Continental store, 1043 N. Academy Blvd., 20 years ago. It employs nine people.

The other Continental Cleaners in Colorado Springs are individually owned by family members.

The coat collection is only at Hawkins’ store during business hours Monday-Saturday. It continues until Jan. 1.

For information, call 591-7549.

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Call the writer at 636-0253.

Last year Harold Hawkins, owner of Continental Cleaners, began a coat drive in an effort to help the homeless in Colorado Springs. With last year’s drive bringing in 160 coats, Hawkins is once again holding his coat drive at 1045 N Academy Blvd. Photo by MARIAH TAUGER, THE GAZETTE

MARIAH TAUGER