While shopping at the hospital is usually limited to the cheery gift shop, St. Luke's University Health Network and Target Corp. added a new twist for the 2015 "Coats for Kids" event. The experience culminates with dinner in St. Luke's University Campus cafeteria in Fountain Hill

                More than 100 children from neighborhoods in and around Fountain Hill gathered in in St. Luke's Priscilla Payne HurdEducation Center on Oct. 20 to "shop" for the warm winter coats, hats, gloves and scarves that will keep them toasty until spring.

                Children were paired with physicians, administrators and staff and Target personnel to help them choose from 400 or so coats before heading off to St. Luke's cafeteria to share a hot meal together.

                The winter gear was provided to St. Luke's Ed Center by the Target store in South Whitehall Township. Target provided the coats to St. Luke's at a sale price and agreed from the start to allow St. Luke's to return any gear that was not chosen by or for a child.

                The "Coats for Kids" program has helped clients of the VNA of St. Luke's, the St. Luke's Community Health Department, the Salvation Army and Fountain Hill and Donegan Elementary Schools for the past 23 years. It is a volunteer effort by hospital physicians and employees. Target graciously made the program's new format very easy. Its employee volunteers not only helped the children and their families, they provided invaluable expertise when it was time to wrap up and return the gear that was not selected. St. Luke's purchased about four coats for every child registered so they would have a choice and so there was no way coats in any size would "run out."

                The collaborative effort, beautiful merchandise and hundreds of smiling faces made for a fun day.