Max I. Walker’s Coat Drive Returns for a Second Year

OMAHA, Neb. — Max I. Walker, a fifth-generation, family-owned drycleaning and laundry company that has served the Omaha area for more than 100 years, is underway with the second year of its Max’s Coats for Kids campaign, an annual community coat drive. The 2026 effort follows an inaugural year in which the company collected 1,200 coats, four times its original goal of 300.

Through Oct. 31, Max I. Walker will accept new and gently used coats in sizes ranging from infant through adult at each of its 10 retail drycleaning locations across the Omaha metro area. The company’s Uniform Rental Division will professionally clean every donated coat at no charge before the items are distributed through Project Intentional, an Omaha-based nonprofit that supports single parents and caregivers during the holiday season.

“As a fifth-generation, family-owned drycleaning business, we see this as a natural extension of our service mission,” says Casey Walker, vice president at Max I. Walker. “We have the infrastructure and the expertise to take on this project, and we’re proud to use our resources to give back in a way that’s uniquely ours.”

Project Intentional will distribute the cleaned coats through its annual LOVE CAN Store event in Omaha this November, which each year provides winter essentials, holiday gifts and other donated items to 300 single caregivers and their families. Last year, the final load of about 270 coats reached Project Intentional just days before the 2025 event.

“Last year’s response exceeded anything we imagined,” says Steph Dorland, marketing director for Max I. Walker. “Collecting 1,200 coats showed what can happen when a cleaner uses its everyday capabilities to make community giving simple. We hope to surpass that total in 2026 and continue growing the program year after year.”

Max I. Walker plans to hold the drive annually from Aug. 1 through Oct. 31 and expand its reach over time. The campaign is being promoted with support from regional media partners WOWT First Alert 6 and Boomer Radio.

More information about Max’s Coats for Kids is available at www.maxiwalker.com/maxs-coats-for-kids.

Omaha, Nebraska-based Max I. Walker dry cleaners collected around 1,200 new and used coats in the fall of 2025, which were donated to local children in need through their nonprofit partner Project Intentional. The Max I. Walker Uniform Rental Division cleans all the donated coats in their commercial laundry plant. The second year of the drive recently began, and will run through Oct. 31. (Photo: Max I. Walker)

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