The New York Jets in conjunction with A-1 First Class-Viking Moving and Storage will hold their annual coat drive to benefit Jersey Cares on Sunday, Dec. 20, at the Meadowlands before the game against the Atlanta Falcons. Fans are encouraged to bring new or gently used coats that will be collected at all gates upon entering the stadium.
The Jersey Cares Coat Drive is an annual lifeline for New Jersey's neediest citizens during the winter months. Last year the drive supplied more than 38,000 warm, gently used winter coats to children, women and men who desperately needed them.
Again this year, Jersey Cares will work with more than 300 corporations and organizations across New Jersey to publicize and collect coats in their locations, creating a network of publicity and community action for this effort that breeds its great success. Jersey Cares, with extensive volunteer support, will organize the coats and then distribute them to more than 200 nonprofit agencies serving thousands of New Jerseyans in need. For a complete list of public collection sites, see www.jerseycares.org.
In addition to the coat drive at the stadium, the Jets are supporting the 21st annual New York Cares Coat Drive through a $1,000 donation. The Jets and New York Cares are also asking people to donate their gently used coats throughout the month of December at any New York Police Department Precinct, weekday mornings at Grand Central Terminal, Penn Station, and the NY Port Authority Bus Terminal, the US Coast Guard Recruiting Station, anytime at The Pond at Bryant Park, Janovic Paint and Decorating Centers, Oz Moving and Storage, and Time Warner Cable stores as well as at hundreds of private coat collection sites in the region (visit www.newyorkcares.org for a complete list).
Ninety percent of homeless adults need a new, warm coat each winter because they have no place to keep one over the summer months. But it's not just the homeless who need help. Thousands of people in the New York area are forced to make a choice between buying a winter coat and putting food on the table or meeting other basic survival needs. New York Cares has collected and distributed over one million coats since the inception of the Coat Drive 21 years ago. For more information please visit www.newyorkcares.org.
The New York Jets take great pride in playing an active role in making a year-round commitment to the tristate community. Programs funded by the New York Jets Foundation touch the lives of countless young men and women in the tristate area.
Over the past nine years, the Jets and their charitable foundation have raised or contributed more than $9 million to promote youth health, fitness and education, particularly in disadvantaged communities. From fighting childhood obesity through the Generation Jets: Be Lean & Green initiative to launching a football team in an urban high school, urging students to eat right and move more, and supporting the efforts of the Alliance for Lupus Research, the New York Jets invest in programs that make a difference in the lives of others. In addition to the Jets Foundation, which supports our own extensive youth initiatives, the Jets partner with numerous established charitable organizations and participate in causes sponsored by the NFL.
