Winter Wear Floods Lost and Found Bins
22 Feb 2007
Almost like clockwork every year, a mountain of jackets begins to grow in school lost and found bins throughout the country.
While the mornings are still brisk, youngsters head off to school donning warm winter coats, but return in the warmer afternoon hours sans coat. And without any idea where it might be.
In Tempe, Arizona, pink princess sweaters and boy's hoodies overflow the lost and found bin, while the massive pile of similar wintry goods rises nearly four feet high in a hallway of Herrera Elementary School in Phoenix.
After a number of months with no likelihood of an owner coming to collect their lost property, the outergear is donated to charity.
"Why don't parents realize that their kids' clothes are disappearing?" said Lookout Mountain School office clerk Sharon Hall. The principal also notified parents to quickly check the school's lost and found bin before spring vacation in March since that's when the lost and found house cleaning begins.
Unless your child has a very common name, school officials suggest writing your child's name on the inside tag of their winter wear.
"I'll go looking through the lost and found periodically just to see if there's anything I recognize," said Jacob Naig's mother, Kim, of Tempe's Broadmore Elementary School.
In our increasingly fast-paced world, notes to check the lost and found bins typically go unheeded. Even when children do take the time to look, they can still come up with nothing. Like the infamous single sock in the laundry, some things mysteriously just disappear.
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