Giving Back This Holiday Season

Last week we shared some of our favorite uniquely New York ideas for giving to friends and loved ones this holiday season. But equally rewarding--and, arguably, more important--is the time, money and energy you spend giving to total strangers. Waterside Plaza has two terrific, easy ways you can help out struggling New Yorkers, but we also thought we'd point out a few other local charities and calls for volunteers from places that do great work, but need your--and all of our--help, please.  

Waterside Plaza City Harvest Food Drive 

First, the big Waterside Plaza drives. Between now and next Tuesday, December 8, the excellent City Harvest is collecting food in the lobbies of building 10, 20, 30 and 40. Every week City Harvest helps feed more than 260,000 New Yorkers, and this year the organization has collected an astonishing 25 million pounds of excess food--food that used to get thrown away--from the likes of restaurants, groceries, corporate cafeterias, manufactures and farms. And now it's our turn. In 2008, Waterside Plaza residents donated 600 pounds canned goods and other non-perishable items that will have an immediate impact on the lives of hungry New Yorkers. This year, please, we're hoping to contribute even more. Remember: canned fruits and vegetables, plastic jars of peanut butter, boxes of macaroni and cheese, and packages of hot and cold cereal are always on the City Harvest "most needed" list.

Waterside Plaza Town & Village Toy Drive

Also going on right now and until next Friday, December 11, is the Town & Village Toy Drive, accepting your donations of unwrapped, new toys (for health reasons, NOT gently-used, please) at the Waterside concierge office in building 30, and at the Waterside Plaza Swim and Health Club in building 25. For more than 60 years the Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village newspaper has been collecting and distributing toys to children undergoing treatment in one of the area's hospitals. This year, young patients at the Beth Israel Medical Center will be receiving your holiday cheer.

There are, of course, many other ways to give a little, or a lot, to your fellow New Yorkers this season. Here are a few that have caught our attention of late:

Stockings With Care

This nonprofit organization gathers up Christmas wish lists from children in shelters, and assigns Santas--that'd be, potentially, you--to purchase one, two, or all three of each child's their wishes. And we just heard today this year that Stockings With Care has approximately 400 more children than Santas, so help is needed right away! To volunteer your time or money, or find out more, click here.

21st Annual New York Cares Coat Drive

Every December New York Cares collects almost 70,000 gently-used warm winter coats that would otherwise hang in a closet all winter (the fit's not right, or the color, or the style... we all have them in there) and distributes them to homeless men, women and children. As their website reminds us, 90% of homeless adults need a new winter coat every year, because they have no place to store their warm clothing over the summer. There are many locations to drop off your coats between now and December 31, including three right nearby at the Time Warner Cable store on 23rd Street between Park and Madison, the Janovic Paint on 23rd Street and Third Avenue, and the Police Department  on 21st Street between Second and Third Avenues.  For complete details, see the New York Cares website, here.

The New York City Coalition Against Hunger.

If you still want to do more for New York City's hungry after you've donated to the Waterside Plaza City Harvest food drive--more than 1.3 million people in this town live in homes without enough food!--consider the NYC Coalition Against Hunger, whose innovative, user-friendly, interactive website will quickly point you towards dozens of volunteering opportunities of all kinds, including several food pantries and soup kitchens right here in the 10010 zip code.

Marble Church

Located close to Waterside on Fifth Avenue and 29th Street, the Marble Collegiate Church is just one of hundreds such institutions in New York City which reach out to "meet human needs", both during the holiday season and all year long. In addition to all of Marble Church's regular volunteer-led efforts, during the month of December they are asking for people to donate, wrap and deliver gifts (all of which can be a great way to include your children in your volunteer work), as well as serving breakfast to the homeless on Christmas morning. For more information, click here.

Posted at 09:47PM Dec 02, 2009 by Scott in Events  |