As Steven Johnson recalls it, he and his wife were in the living room just kicking around ideas for how they could help people in their part of West Baltimore when it came to him.

“I work in the school system, and I see these kids at the bus stop in just hoodies and thin jackets and, of course, that was it – coats,” said Steven Johnson, 28, of Park Heights.

Johnson has hit upon a critical need, judging by the crowd that lined up more than an hour ahead of time on Saturday in the 4500 block of Reisterstown Road for the Third Annual “Park Heights Warm-Up.”

About 350 coats, parkas and jackets were given away to a steady stream of people, who ranged in age from children to the elderly.

“People are very gracious, very grateful,” said Johnson after the event, in which he was assisted by a number of volunteers, including his wife, Ashley Johnson, and their daughter, Kailah Johnson, and his parents, Jeannette and Robert Warren.

He said his heart goes out to the people who show up in need of a hand. One woman told him she was about to observe her one-year anniversary of sobriety, but now was struggling to raise her granddaughter as a way to help her daughter through difficult times.

The woman noticed that her granddaughter had only a thin sweatshirt, “and when she saw one of our fliers, she told me she felt like it was an answer to her prayers,” Johnson said.

A Basic Human Right

“The Warm-Up,” as Johnson explains it, is a very simple event that started out with coats he collected from friends, family and work contacts.

(Johnson teaches sixth grade social studies at ConneXions, a community-based arts school in Park Heights that is part of the city school system.)

His six-year-old daughter goes with him as he distributes the fliers at local stores and puts them up on utility poles around Park Heights.

This year, partnering with the Langston Hughes Community Association, the family got a grant from Park Heights Renaissance to buy new coats to supplement the donations.

“Our supply was starting to dry up,” he said.

Now that he’s getting some grant assistance, Johnson is confident he can keep the tradition going in future years.

Johnson knows the need is there. He grew up in several city neighborhoods, including Cherry Hill and Cedonia. Coming back to Baltimore after attending college elsewhere, he said, was all about giving back to his hometown.

“People need to care about human beings. They care about animals more than they care about people, I think sometimes,” he said.

Keeping others from being cold is a fundamental social obligation, he said. “Being warm, to me, is a basic human right.”