Editor’s Note: This week, Jeff “the Coat Guy” Friedman, founder and director of the Livingston Philanthropies, Inc. (LPI) shares with readers, in his own words, an “LPI success story.” A young woman named Caitlin, a one-time recipient of a donated coat through the charitable organization, recently re-donated the coat back now that she no longer needs it, thereby “paying her good fortune forward.”
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By Jeff Friedman
I hadn’t seen Caitlin since she left her first job at a Livingston business. Her first job, that is, after successfully completing detox and rehab – for the 11th and last time. Caitlin has been clean and sober for three years now and is admirably navigating her way through life while building professional and personal successes. I’d like to share with you Caitlin’s story, the unlikely way in which she crossed paths with Livingston Philanthropies, and why she just returned her LPI donated coat.
After reading about our multiple community initiatives here in the West Essex Tribune, a customer in Caitlin’s place of business wanted to know more. I was there to explain that, among other things, we give warm coats to those who don’t have one. Overhearing our conversation, Caitlin told me, “I don’t have a coat.” I learned later that she was walking to and from work in the freezing cold wearing a light jacket, inadequate for the cold. I had no further questions after exclaiming, “What do you mean, you don’t have a coat?!”
Now, in January, 2019, over lunch, I learned why Caitlin didn’t have a coat back then. “I overdosed, and they had to cut my coat off to save me,” she said. Fresh off months of counseling and rehab, Caitlin was residing in a Livingston “sober living house” for women. Financially, a new coat was out of the question.
As weekly readers know, Livingston Philanthropies “provides for the poor, homeless and disenfranchised.” We’ve been doing so since 2011. Clearly, our mission statement was met here. Coat Drive Central (a.k.a. my garage!) was stocked at the time, so Caitlin immediately received a top-quality winter coat with hat and scarf, compliments of ever-generous Livingston residents. It was a classic “right place at the right time” scenario. Surprisingly, I actually picked the correct size for her.
My young friend was well-served for several years until she acquired the means to buy a coat of her own. Now she can.
Today, in January of 2019, after ...
