New York Cares Coat Drive Well Short Of Goal With One Day To Go
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Thousands of needy New Yorkers are kept warm each year with help from the New York Cares coat drive. But this year, some of those people might be left out in the cold.
Gary Bagley, executive director of New York Cares, said the charity is less than halfway to its goal of 100,000 coats. The drive ends Thursday.
One reason for the deficit could be the warmer weather.
"It's not necessarily on people's minds that it's cold out," Bagley told WCBS 880's Peter Haskell.
"If we're walking down the street to work and we are huddled against the cold and then we see someone without a coat, that mental image reminds us of the immensity of the need and the importance of each of us to do something about it," Bagley said.
Last year, New York Cares also came up short of its goal.
"We had requests for coats for 25,000 children, and we were only able to collect 21,000," he said.
Bagley called that heartbreaking.
For more information on the coat drive, including drop-off locations, visit NewYorkCares.org.