{"id":582,"date":"2017-01-02T12:05:51","date_gmt":"2017-01-02T17:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/?p=582"},"modified":"2019-03-04T13:47:01","modified_gmt":"2019-03-04T18:47:01","slug":"wishing-for-winter-warmth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/wishing-for-winter-warmth.html","title":{"rendered":"Wishing for Winter Warmth"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a brisk fall day, and families came in looking for warm clothes for the cold\u00a0weather ahead. There was so much commotion with people trying on various coats, picking out a\u00a0color and style that would suit their preference. Trying on mittens for their tiny hands, children\u00a0were also looking for jackets that would fit their small frames. Everybody looked around in awe\u00a0at the sheer number and variety of coats, hats, mittens and scarves that were available. There\u00a0were ten racks of coats in the main room and many more bags of outerwear that were stored in\u00a0the back closet waiting to be put out.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This was not your average Macy’s or Kohl’s. This was a place called Amos House in\u00a0Providence, Rhode Island, where 200 to 300 people usually come for meals daily. Indigent\u00a0families appear, single parents arrive with their children, and many homeless people are served\u00a0meals here. Because flyers had been distributed in advance announcing the coat give-away, 450\u00a0people showed up. These extra people did not pose a problem, however, because I had collected\u00a0over 1,000 coats.<\/p>\n

I had arrived at this idea from volunteering during meal time at Amos House, where I had\u00a0noticed that many of the people who came in were under-dressed and poorly prepared for the\u00a0winter. I couldn’t imagine not having a warm coat for the New England weather. After discussing\u00a0the situation with the director, I came up with the idea to help them by collecting outerwear at\u00a0various locations around Rhode Island. After decorating the boxes, I placed them in local\u00a0schools, grocery stores and libraries. Also, by sending articles to local newspapers, I was able to\u00a0amass 1,222 coats and 630 accessories in four weeks. All of these items I washed and sorted by\u00a0gender and size, then placed into individual bags to make it faster and easier for set up.<\/p>\n

The distribution day was a big day for me and the people I was helping. I had rented ten\u00a0racks and set them up for the coats to be displayed. In addition, I built a coat rack for Amos\u00a0House to use for future use as well. The reason I wanted to set it up as a department store is that I\u00a0did not want people that were coming to Amos House for the distribution to have to rummage\u00a0through bags of coats, hats, mittens and scarves that were just thrown on the table or floor. I\u00a0wanted them to walk in, find what they wanted, and be able to walk out with dignity. I had\u00a0bought reusable bags for them to put their items in as well, so they truly felt like shoppers with\u00a0their newly acquired merchandise.<\/p>\n

After six hours, everyone who came for outerwear had been served. Feeling relieved that\u00a0it had gone so well and exhausted from all of the work involved, I also felt proud and exhilarated\u00a0from the entire experience. I realized that I had made a difference in many people’s lives when\u00a0one of the \u201cshoppers\u201d said to me, \u201cWe are so thankful that there are people like you in this\u00a0world.\u201d
\nThroughout my teenage years, I have enjoyed working with disadvantaged children and\u00a0adults. Wherever life takes me, I plan to become involved in more projects where I can make a\u00a0difference by providing a helping hand to those in need.<\/p>\n

Leah Sirmalis\u00a0did this project when she\u00a0was 13 years old,\u00a0in 7th grade. Putting in\u00a0150 hours, she\u00a0earned her\u00a0Girl Scout Silver Award. Today, she\u00a0continues to collect coats and distribute them. Leah has\u00a0been helping the less fortunate since she\u00a0was 4 years old, collecting food, clothes, toiletries,\u00a0etc.\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
When Leah was 15, she\u00a0developed and taught a health and fitness program for the City of East Providence’s Summer Camp. Putting in 225 hours in just\u00a04 months, she then earned her\u00a0Girl Scout Gold Award.<\/em><\/div>\n
Leah is now a senior at St Mary Academy Bay View. She is\u00a0involved in indoor\/ outdoor track and field and cross country. She is\u00a0also involved in a few clubs at school. Leah has\u00a0been\u00a0a girl scout for 13 years. With that saying, she has\u00a0been a top cookie seller throughout those years.<\/em><\/div>\n
Leah wishes to pursue a\u00a0career in nursing so that she\u00a0can continue her\u00a0path to help\u00a0people. She\u00a0would like to help make this world a better place by offering the care that is so needed.<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a brisk fall day, and families came in looking for warm clothes for the cold\u00a0weather ahead. There was so much commotion with people trying on various coats, picking out a\u00a0color and style that would suit their preference. Trying on mittens for their tiny hands, children\u00a0were also looking for jackets that would fit their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":585,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scholarship-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":588,"href":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582\/revisions\/588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}