Chimera’s Comics Pilots Year of Near-Constant Charity Drives

When La Grange’s Chimera’s Comics finished its December holiday toy drive for charity, store co-owner Carmelo Chimera tried to take a picture of the accumulated gifts—and found there were too many to fit in a single snapshot.

The community response outpaced his wildest expectations, Chimera said, which bodes well for his larger vision: holding some type of charity drive at pretty much every time of the year. 

“We always wanted to do charitable things through the store ever since we opened, and it’s something that unfortunately took us a while to get off the ground,” Chimera said. “But now that we’ve been open so long and have such a loyal customer base and a loyal community to support it. … Ideally, I’d love to do something every month.”

That will make 2013 the pilot year for a number of “first annual” drives at Chimera’s, kicking off with its second ever: a winter clothing drive for local homeless shelters in the Chicago area, running through February 15.

New and gently used coats, gloves, hats, scarves and other winter clothing (nothing ripped) are all being accepted for donation at the shop.

“Chicago winters can get pretty intense, so we appreciate all the help in making this drive as successful as our last one!” said the store’s blog. 

Future ideas for charity drives include a food drive and a blood drive, Chimera said, though nothing is beyond a concept right now. 

“There’s so much that can be done,” Chimera said. “We’re sort of a little community place, so everyone working together can really accomplish a lot. We want to be ambitious with how many of these we plan. If I shoot for 12 and we only get eight, that’s fine—I don’t want to set the bar low.”

Read more about the drive at the Chimera’s Comics website.

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