Throughout the month of March, Penn Liberty Bank, located on N. Lewis Road in Limerick, has been holding a coat drive to benefit local families in need. What started out as just an idea after a successful food drive, became an "overflow" of coats pouring out of the office and into the homes of families that need them most in our local area.

The drive ends on March 1, so there's still time to donate. At the time of this writing, the bank has dropped off 12-13 bags of coats, and currently has about four more bags in its possession. They started donating them through Family Services of Montgomery County, which runs locally out of Pottstown. However, with so many coats donated at the halfway point, Penn Liberty decided to also donate to Open Door in Royersford.

"We're a very community-oriented bank and we try to do things often for the community," said April Allen, assistant manager of the Limerick Branch. "One of our employees suggested it, and with people being short on money right now, we woud see what we could do."

Other branches are also collecting, including the Blue Bell branch. Overall, the experience has been a good one for Allen and her colleagues at the bank.

"It really is amazing," she said. "We really enjoy doing things for the community. To see the community actually give back as much as they have with this - and I'd have to say with our food drive too, people randomly come in and it's amazing that people are so caring."

Moving forward, once the coat drive ends, Penn Liberty is looking to do a spring holiday food drive in coordinance with local churches holding food banks.

All sizes are welcome, and again, the bank is still accepting coat donations, and Allen said all donations are greatly appreciated.