Clothes, coats, shoes, food and even toys.

Those are the items that most often come to mind when the subject of a collection drive to benefit children is discussed.

Underprivileged children in Albany and Clinton County were the beneficiaries of a somewhat odd collection of items when Don Pratt came to town in his white, four-door sedan last week.

Pratt, a retired business owner who lives in Lexington, brought his vehicle, loaded with suitcases and travel bags, to Albany with the idea of helping out local children who might be in need of a suitcase.

During a brief stop at the Clinton County News to learn the location of the local Kentucky Cabinet for Families and Children branch, as well as a recommendation of good places to eat and some interesting sightseeing stops while he was here, explained his pet project briefly.

Pratt has a long history with children in need, having been a foster parent for many, many years with a total of over 60 foster children having been in his care at one time or another.

“I do this so kids don’t have to move to a foster home or even go to college with their clothes in paper bags or garbage bags,” Pratt said, explaining that more often than not, that’s the way many children are forced to travel. “I don’t want to see garbage bags.”

Pratt said he collects used suitcases as donations from people and stores and sorts them out inside his Lexington home, noting that the suitcases and bags are stacked up throughout his house.

He added that now that more and more people are learning about his project, he has been getting calls and donations of travel bags from across the state.

Often, as he proved last Thursday afternoon when he began removing the suitcases and travel bags he had brought to Albany, the donated items are unused and many still had price tags attached when he received them.

Whether people updated their luggage with new, or had pieces out of a set they just never used, Pratt collects them, sorts them out and then makes a call to one of Kentucky’s Cabinet for Families and Children offices to explain his project before loading his car with suitcases and heading to a new area of the state.

Last week’s stop in Albany was the 75th county he has dropped off a load of bags in during the 15 years he has been collecting and distributing.

With a trunk and back seat filled to the brim during his stop here, the first appearance would be that he had perhaps a dozen or so well placed bags in his vehicle.

What’s so deceiving about the stack of suitcases, however, is the way Pratt has worked to place bags inside of bags inside of bags – in a nesting fashion if you will – before placing each outer bag carefully in it’s place inside his vehicle.

As a side benefit to his project, other than the satisfaction he gets from knowing a child is benefiting with a more personal way of packing their belongings – is the fact that his retired lifestyle allows him to take his time on each trip – utilizing non-interstate routes when possible and always trying to seek out locally owned restaurants and sights in each community he visits.

“I wanted to say thanks for your help!,” Pratt wrote in an email to the Clinton County News after returning home last week. “Found the Cabinet for Families and Children office, a place to eat and 76 Falls. Thanks, Don Pratt.”

In addition to making deliveries to Kentucky Cabinet for Families and Children offices, he has also made special deliveries under certain special circumstances, for instance in the weeks following the West Liberty tornado disaster a few years ago.

Pratt noted that anyone interested in sponsoring a luggage drive or making donations could contact him via email at:

dbp91044@gmail.com