The fourth annual Livingston Coat Drive will continue through February, announced organizer Jeff Friedman of Livingston.
Friedman, known popularly as the "Coat Guy," noted, "The holidays are just about over, but the coat drive isn't. It has just started to get really cold, so the need is even greater right now. I will suggest an appropriate New Year's Resolution for Tribune readers: search your closets, basements, and garages for new and gently used coats and accessories, so you can join your Livingston friends and neighbors who have already provided warmth and comfort to the poor, homeless and disenfranchised. The need is real, local, and immediate!"
Recent donors to the Coat Drive include the four year olds in Roni Weiner's pre-school class at the West Orange JCC, who collected two big carts of coats, many for children, as part of a class project. The coats were then presented to Friedman and his sister-in-law, Joyce Friedman, a member of the Coat Drive's "Dream Team" of volunteers. "The kids learned about the meaning of giving, those less fortunate who receive, and how it's a good thing to do a mitzvah," said the Coat Guy. "In its Hebrew meaning, a mitzvah refers to a moral deed performed as a religious duty. The term mitzvah has also come to express an act of human kindness – a nice lesson for the youngsters."
Meanwhile, the West Essex Tribune has been deluged with coats and accessories dropped off by Livingston residents. Jeff Friedman and Dream Team member Candi Samansky of Livingston have been regular visitors to the Tribune offices for pick-ups.
Coats are also being dropped off in big numbers to the Coat Drive's other collection partners, the Village Laundry Center in Upper Montclair, owned by Adam and Wendy Slavitt of Livingston; and West Orange Jewelers in Roseland, owned by Richard and Robyn Acceturo.
Joyce Friedman and Jeff Friedman recently delivered 147 coats and numerous bags of accessories to the Family Success Center in East Orange, a long-time Coat Drive distribution partner. Family Success, as part of its #GivingTuesday initiative, will distribute them to the needy on weekly give-away days. The Center, explains Friedman, "provides resources, programming, and a network of family services and other support programs to hundreds of families each year so that they can grow, evolve and become stronger. This dovetails nicely with the mission of the Livingston Coat Drive."
The two Friedmans also made another delivery, this time of ...
