Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

By NICHOLAS LOPEZ

On Tuesday morning as the first snowflakes fell in the city since late spring, New York and New Jersey Cares began distributing some thousands of “freshly laundered” coats to needy local residents at the Bowery Mission.

The drive, in its twenty-fifth year, is an annual citywide tradition that has collected 1.6 million winter coats for men, women and children in need since 1989.

New Yorkers were urged to donate used or new coat from now till February 7 when Super Bowl XLVIII will take place at the Meadowlands. Coats will be collected at various locations including every police precinct, Penn Station, Port Authority Bus Terminal and Grand Central Terminal. The donated coats will be counted, sorted and distributed to organizations serving the homeless at a temporary warehouse space in midtown Manhattan.

“Last year, New Yorkers set the bar at 123,000 [coats],” said Gary Bagley, New York Cares Executive Director, who hosted the press conference. “We need to do more this year and we need to make sure we come together as a region to make sure that everyone in New York City and in New Jersey is warm for the season.”

“Jersey Cares is equally as excited as everyone else here about partnering with New York Cares and the Super Bowl Committee,” said Jersey Cares spokeswoman Sherry Lynn Fazio. “We already have requests for over 40,000 coats from all 21 counties throughout New Jersey.”

Suzanne Davis, one of New York Cares’ founders who first had the idea for the coat drive 25 years ago, was amazed at the day’s turnout.

“It’s wonderful to see such a simple idea take off and part of it was that it was well managed by a really strong organization,” said Davis. “New York Cares was a baby organization when I approached them but they are strong and add many things to the city, so I picked the right place to run with this idea. It’s thrilling to know how many collections of all the coats in all the years we’ve been doing this and to have these different partnerships is very satisfying.”