There is certainly nothing unusual about a coat closet being filled with coats, but when an 11 foot by 13 foot coat closet is bursting with love, something very special is going on.

Over the past month, Women Involved In Rural Electrification, known as the Santee Electric Coop WIRE group collected 205 new and gently used coats for two local charities Tara Hall Home for Boys and the Pee Dee Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence.

Tara Hall Home for Boys takes in neglected, troubled or abused boy's ages six and up. The Pee Dee Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence provides a 24 hour crisis line and shelter for abused women. Representatives came to Santee Electric Coop to collect the coats Wednesday, Nov. 1.

'This comes at a good time because we are almost out of coats in our clothes closet,' Jennifer Cribb, Administrative Assistant at Tara Hall Home for Boys said as she and the WIRE members packed coats into her van. 'We greatly appreciate it. We were running out of coats.'

Freda Cox, Williamsburg County Coordinator for the Pee Dee Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence said people often come to their shelter with only cloths on their backs.

'It's so important for a child going to school and a mother walking that child to the bus stop to have a warm coat,' Cox said, adding that many women come from abusive homes where the sole income provider was their abuser.

'It's great to volunteer on projects that you know will make a difference in someone's life,' Adrel Langley, Manager of Community Relations at SEC headed up the coat drive, said. 'We would like to thank our coworkers, cooperative members, DSM, Williamsburg County Disabilities and Special Needs, community members and everyone else who participated.'

If you would like to help either of these agencies, you can contact Tara Hall Home for Boys at 843-546-3000 or www.tarahall.org and Pee Dee Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence at 843-354-6481 or peedeecoalition.org.

Mary Grace McGee, Marketing Representative at Santee Electric Cooperative is over the WIRE program. She said WIRE's next project is a canned food drive that will be going on through the month of November.

'To make the canned food drive fun, it will be a Carolina verses Clemson competition,' McGee said.

Donations will be greatly appreciated and can be made at any Santee Electric office. Anyone who wishes to join the group can call McGee at 843-355-0599.