In what has become an annual tradition, The Lucky Duck Foundation is providing people experiencing homelessness with specialized clothing.
With early January nighttime temperatures dipping into the 30s and 40s, The organization is handing out heavy-duty winter coats that can be transformed into sleeping bags. The coats are being distributed to those in need while they wait for shelter space to become available.
The Lucky Duck Foundation has already distributed more than 3,000 sleeping bag coats.
“Our mission is to prevent and alleviate the suffering of homelessness throughout San Diego County, so these are meant to provide life-saving protection in the meantime,” Lucky Duck Foundation executive director Drew Moser says.
Moser adds: “We’ve been doing this for a few years now. We’ve had several people that are now off the streets and have come to us and said ‘that coat saved my life.'”
The Lucky Duck Foundation was created in 2005 by Pat and Stephanie Kilkenny. Initially, the nonprofit raised funds and awareness for several charitable causes throughout the region.
The foundation’s name stems from two sources—the Kilkenny’s Irish family heritage and a nod to the mascot at their beloved University of Oregon.
Pat and Stephanie subscribe to the idea that personal good luck and fortune should be shared with those in need. In that spirit, the couple matches all annual donations made to Lucky Duck up to $1.5 million.
In 2016, around the same time the Kilkenneys were keeping an eye on the growing local homelessness crisis, a group of business and civic leaders were also in the early stages of studying the issue.
That private sector group included the late San Diego Padres owner Peter Seidler and veteran businessman/activist Dan Shea, who concurrently serves as CEO of Feeding San Diego.
Seidler and Shea founded the Tuesday Group, a collection of well-connected San Diego movers and shakers who are voluntarily pulled together out of concern for the unsheltered population.
The Tuesday Group and Lucky Duck Foundation joined forces and sleeping bag coats are an idea that shares support from both entities.
Want to donate? Thanks to a matching fund challenge, every $75 donation helps the Lucky Duck Foundation provide one sleeping bag coat to someone in need. For more information go to: Sleeping bag coats.
