COAL VALLEY, Illinois - With this arctic weather sticking around, some local business owners are offering warmth to those who need it most.
Inside the Coal Valley Chiropractic Clinic, they're helping people adjust in more ways than one.
"You have people at this time of year who`s furnace will go out or if they don`t have proper transportation and it`s so cold outside, it would be nice for you to be able to provide something for free," said Dr. Michelle Franklin.
After getting the idea from a friend, the clinic decided to start the "leave a coat, take a coat" project. How it works is simple. People can drop off a coat so someone who needs one can take a coat for free.
"Patients who have come in have said 'oh I have coats that I can bring in I have a lot of nice things that I can bring in'," said Franklin.
With the harsh cold winter not leaving anytime soon, Franklin says this project couldn't come at a better time, "We have some people that actually walk to work in our community so it would be nice for them to be able to get a hold of things like that. We have children in our community who might not have warmer clothes to wear so we thought it would be a nice place to start with that."
The clinic's not alone, over at E-Z Livin in Milan, within a few hours the donations started coming in.
"We had one lady drop off some head warmers so yeah its going over really well for it being the first day, it's only been a few hours, we`ve got quite a few in," said Rhonda Carnes.
Business owners hope the project spreads so they can get more people dropping off and even more picking up.
"It's getting really cold and the wind chills are dropping down and I think people need to come in and they need to get warm," said Carnes.