Utica, NY (WIBX) - For the third year in a row, The United Way of the Valley and Greater Utica Area donated 100 winter coats to local children.The donation--a partnership with Herb Phillipson's--will go to students at four area schools. Mark Desalvo, Principle at Martin Luther King Elementary School was the recipient of 43 coats. He says the donations help fill a need in the community. "Absolute need, absolute need, but it is less, which is good because we're seeing that those kids are coming back in, they're keeping those coats. You know, the first year was OK, just everyone wanted a coat, even though they had one or didn't have one, they wanted a coat, which, you know, is normal that you want something new, but this year it's targeted and I think that's better--it's a better use of their resources and I know that the kids really do need them," Desalvo said.

The other recipients are the Town of Webb School, HARC, and Kernan Elementary School. Adam Lawless, spokesperson for the local United Way says the number of coats being requested this year has dwindled. "So, that to me shows prove that these coats are staying in the right hands, that the families that are receiving them are either using them year after year or passing them down to their younger children, so that to me really proves that these donations really are getting into the hands that need them, and it's really propogating a way out of poverty," said Lawless.

Officials with the United Way say coat donations are still being accepted from those able to give to the less fortunate this winter season. To learn more about the United Way of the Valley and Greater Utica, visit, www.unitedwaygu.org.

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