Free Winter Coat Giveaway Event Added to ASU and FAMU Game Festivities

By Hazel Scott/ASU

On the eve of the Alabama State University Hornets playing the Florida A&M (FAMU) Rattlers, ASU will celebrate by joining forces with the Power of Life Foundation (founded by an ASU alumnus and a FAMU alumna) for a free giveaway of essential items for campus students and those in the community who need some assistance in keeping warm this winter.

Lane Harper, executive director of the Foundation, and Teresa Berger, the Foundation’s associate director, will join  ASU’s Department of Social Work for “Wakanda CommUniversity  Day!" beginning at 11 a.m., November 11 at ASU’s Lockhart Gymnasium, located at 860 University Drive North.  The event will remain open until supplies are gone.

“The giveaway is to honor the release of ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,’ and the memory of humanitarian Chadwick Boseman, whose efforts included raising money for children’s charities and cancer research,” said  Harper. “He provided more than 42 million dollars to hospitals fighting the pandemic in black communities.”

Like Boseman,  Harper noted ASU and the Foundation are also committed to improving lives.

“This giveaway embodies both the University’s and the Foundation’s missions of service,” said Harper.

At the one-day giveaway, winter essentials (coats, socks, hats, gloves, etc.), personal care items, snack food items and much more will be distributed.

“Everything is free. All you need to do is show up,” said  Harper. “I want to make a meaningful impact by blessing those who need help. It’s always good to give something back because you never know where your blessings might come from,”  said  Harper, who is a Birmingham police officer, actor and humanitarian.

Harper and Berger pointed out that the Foundation gave away free face masks to the University and the community in 2021, at the height of the pandemic,  during a drive-through giveaway on the ASU campus.

“Our partnership with the Power of Life Foundation expands our CommUniversity mission of building upon the University’s tradition and commitment to develop and maintain initiatives that are responsive to the needs of individual citizens, public groups and agencies in the city of Montgomery and surrounding areas,” said Kenneth Waters, coordinator of Marketing and Communications in the University’s Division of  Marketing and Strategic Communications. “ASU has a proud history of CommUniversity.”

Both ASU and Foundation representatives emphasized that the giveaway will bring together two HBCU communities of volunteers, ASU and FAMU, to give back to students, veterans, and the disadvantaged community in Montgomery.