PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) – He wanted to collect enough coats to fill one of our Coats for Families bins, but he was able to do that in just the first day.

Ben Rutter, 12, is a seventh grader at at Walsingham Academy in Williamsburg. For his service project this semester, he set out to make a major impact on our Coats for Families drive – and ended up collecting nearly a hundred coats for kids and adults in just the three weeks since Thanksgiving.

The donations come from fellow students and their parents at the Catholic school. Rutter and his mother hauled the coats into the WAVY-TV lobby Tuesday afternoon.

“One day I realized I had a lot of coats in my closet that I didn’t wear anymore,” he said. “So I went to the principal of the lower school and asked her if she could send out an email or put something in the daily newsletter.”

Rutter says he’d like to make it an annual effort, and wants to double his total for next year.

“I feel really good. It’s gonna help people in need for the cold winter season.”