February 2nd was a cold, cold day and rather quiet in the Little Store because of the cold. Riley was on the front counter and Walter and I were in the back office. A call came in from the front counter, “There’s an enormous donation coming in, you’d better get out here!”
What we found when we ran out to the front was Macey Poitras-Cote from St. Rose of Lima parish and her parents, Pamela and Jason, unloading 2 trucks full of clothing donations. Macey was happy to describe the evolution of the “enormous” donation.
She explained that she was one of the Young Neighbors in Action present when Walter addressed one of their meetings at St. Rose of Lima recently. She left the meeting inspired to do something to help others but wasn’t sure what to do. Then she heard Fr. James Houston mention a clothing drive and she knew what she wanted.
She organized a clothing drive through the Young Neighbors group but then expanded the scope to include all of her town, which she involved with the help of her high school service club, Global Goals. She collected clothing over two weeks in January and people brought donations to the church, even on the snowy Sunday when a lot of people stayed home. They even “canned” outside a supermarket a few weeks earlier to collect money to buy winter jackets for the Christmas program.
Macey, we are inspired by you and your willingness to act and accomplish something that helped a lot of people. We thank all the people who donated and all the Young Neighbors, church members, students, teachers, who were involved in the project, and your parents for helping you finish the task on such a cold day.