Brewers bullpen catcher donating winter coats for kids



Marcus Hanel is a bullpen catcher for the Milwaukee Brewers, and seven years ago, he started "Koos for Kids" and the Brewers Community Foundation with the purpose of helping terminally ill and disadvantaged kids in southeastern Wisconsin. One of their projects is providing winter coats for kids, and Thursday, hundreds of kids left school with much more than they came with, as the coats were delivered.

Each child at Parkview Elementary School and the Hayes City-Wide Bilingual School received a brand-new winter coat Thursday. Hanel's coat project has snowballed, and will provide over 700 coats for students in several schools, and the youngsters were thrilled to receive their coats Thursday!

"One thing I wanted them to have was brand-new coats. That was my big thing. I didn't want just the hand-me-downs, because most of these kids will probably not get a brand-new coat. I wanted them to have that feeling like 'this is mine,'" Hanel said.

Hanel said the project began with 17 coats, donated to a homeless shelter in Racine. The effort is a community project, with donations from people who want to make a difference.