Benefiting Midvale Middle School

At the time of his tragic death, Jonah Glenn was organizing a coat drive to benefit students at Midvale Middle School, where he was a dedicated teacher. The Hog Wallow Pub  in Cottonwood Heights, Utah would like to carry on with the drive in his honor. If you are unable to donate cold weather gear in one of our various drop locations, please donate here. The money raised will be used to purchase coats, hoodies, gloves, and more for the students.

How the Coat Drive Came to Be

One morning after Jonah finished getting his classroom ready for the new school year, he shared a video of it with one of our other bartenders, Sarah. His classroom was bright yellow sprinkled with student artwork and decorated in posters meant to highlight real issues and inspire real change. Their discussion moved toward the impending Parent Night. They jokingly discussed how when it comes to teaching, the kids are the easy part; it’s the parents you have to worry about. They bantered about so-called “helicopter parents” who seem to always be there, doing too much. But then that made them think of the parents who couldn’t show up at all. 

Those parents were the ones working multiple jobs just to try to keep food on the table or provide a warm bed and place for their family to go home to. A lot of parents don’t get the choice to be involved with their kid’s school and education when they are struggling to make ends meet. Between multiple jobs, housework, errands, and commuting, there is no time in the day to make it to parent night, or soccer games, or plays, or help their children with homework, no matter how badly those parents really want to. Of course, this takes a toll on the children as well. These kids worry about where they will sleep. They worry if there will be food. They worry about where home will be for the night, and if it will be a place where they can do their homework, and brush their teeth, and change their clothes. Then they worry what their friends and peers would think if they knew the truth about what their life was like after school. 

Jonah saw this daily struggle in his students and wanted his classroom to be a place they could feel safe and secure and heard if home wasn’t a place that could be. He talked to them, and he actually listened to what they said in return. Jonah wanted to be the person that showed up for them and shared with them a type of kindness and warmth that they had a hard time finding in this world. In that same conversation, Jonah told Sarah that he had learned that around 75% of the families in his school were living below the poverty line; and that they would have just shy of 200 kids that were “floating” or experiencing homelessness this year. Sarah immediately wanted to help so they started bouncing ideas off each other. One idea in-particular stuck: a coat drive.

The next day, Jonah came into work at the Hog Wallow and pitched the idea to use the bar to host the coat drive. We instantly said yes! After receiving the news of Jonah’s passing, the entire staff was devastated, but we all unanimously agreed to move forward with the drive in Jonah’s name. The idea that Jonah still gets to serve his students and his community is something that has brought all of us comfort through this entire experience. It’s a way to let the kind and thoughtful nature of Jonah continue in this world.