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NEW YORK, N.Y. The Hendrick Hudson Leos travelled to midtown Manhattan to hand out bagged lunches and warm clothes to the homeless, on October 7.
The Leos went for an extra trip this year, and will hand out food and clothes again in January. The event is coordinated by Midnight Run, a homeless advocacy group based on Dobbs Ferry.
We met a lot of different people and they were all very friendly and kind, said Leos Vice President Dylan Gambardella, it was a great learning experience.
It started raining at one point during our trip, and there were people sleeping right on the ground, and they said Ew theyre getting all wet, and I said, Yeah, thats what happens when youre homeless. Even though you say homeless, I think they just dont imagine that that means theres no roof over their head. said Leos Advisor, Debbie Costello. It makes them aware of how fortunate they are, she added.
Executive Director Dale Williams said that anywhere between three and seven groups of charitable organizations, high school or college students will head to midtown Manhattan on a given night.
Honestly, every kid has a slightly different reaction, but Ive been doing this 20 years, ever since I got off the streets myself, and Ive taken 800 groups, mostly high school kids. But almost always someone says in the van on the way back, Wow, theyre not that much different than us. Which means they thought something different before, said Williams.
Although coalitions and New York City both attempt to count the homeless, the groups come up with wildly different numbers. Anecdotally, both Williams and Costello agreed they have seen more husbands and wives on the streets than before the recession, where the population used to be almost exclusively single men.
Each group that goes out will see somewhere between 40 and 75 people, but that doesnt mean we even see everybody in the areas we cover the most. Theres no real way of counting the homeless, said Williams.
The Leos will be returning to Manhattan early next year, and will hand out food and clothes again in January. The event is coordinated by Midnight Run, a homeless advocacy group based on Dobbs Ferry.
Williams added that it is not always the truly homeless who come to the food and clothing giveaways. We see people who are not necessarily homeless, theyre unemployment pays for their rent, but they have not food or clothing, said Williams. Midnight Run has begun a new program to collect interview clothes for unemployed people with job interviews.
We plan on doing this again in January, and in January we tend to have larger groups of people, because of the really cold weather there are more people in need. When its freezing cold they need everything they can get just to stay warm, said Costello.
The Hendrick Hudson Leos handed out about 30 pairs of jeans, 50 shirts and coats, 30 pairs of boots or shoes, as well as blankets, toiletries, toothpaste and bagged lunches. The lunches contained cookies, a meatloaf sandwich, bottled water and an orange or a banana.
The Hendrick Hudson Leos' next meeting is on Sunday, November 6, at 7 p.m., in the Cortlandt Ambulance Corps. New members are always welcome, and can visit the Hendrick Hudson Leos website for more information.
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