“Look the zipper works!” cried Ashley as she ran around the room giggling and showing off her new pink winter jacket. This is “my very first and my very best coat.”
What Ashley meant was that this is the first time she had received a coat that wasn’t a hand me down. And the first time she was in possession of a garment with a functioning zipper.
Ashley loves school, but her attendance was sporadic because she didn’t have a warm sweater or jacket. Her family had arrived at a nearby homeless shelter with only the clothes on their backs.
Children of the City is now partnering with her local public school to work with Ashley’s family and ensure that she and many other children in similar circumstances do not become unnoticed statistics of the plight of poverty in NYC.