New Jersey Girl Collects Blankets For The Homeless
DUMONT, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- A New Jersey girl is on a mission to keep as many people warm as possible during these cold winter nights.
8-year-old Gabby Snell is collecting blankets -- lots of them -- and she still needs many more this holiday season.
CBS2's Tracee Carrasco visited the family's Dumont home, where the basement is filled with 140 blankets ready to be passed out to the homeless on Christmas Eve.
"People don't have the big things or the little things so I wanted to really just help," said Gabby.
The idea came from a conversation she had with her mother, who explained that not everybody has a home or a warm place to sleep every night.
"When she realized that, like she couldn't believe it," mom Marian said. "It was like, 'wow, how can we help?'. Once she said she wanted to do something to help I was really overjoyed and I said 'let's do it'."
Since then, Marian says, Gabby has asked neighbors, family members, friends, and even her 3rd grade class at Grant School to help reach her goal of 100 new or gently used blankets.
Now that she's met and even surpassed that number, the non-profit group NJ Food and Clothing Rescue will help her distribute the blankets -- along with Wet Ones and homemade treats -- to those in need in Newark.
"It's really heartwarming when you see little kids doing this because this is how you change the world," said group Executive Director Phil Stafford.
Stafford -- who was once homeless himself -- says his organization relies on these types of donations.
"Everything that we do, it comes from help from people like Gabby," he said. "When we see a kid doing this it gives us hope."
All the donated items -- including Gabby's blankets -- will be passed out on Saturday at Peter Francisco Park behind Newark Penn Station starting at 11 a.m.
