A Candy-Coated Holiday

The story of a consequential donation to buy coats for the homeless and how it grew like the Grinch’s heart to multiply its impact well beyond all expectations has enough “goodwill towards men” to surpass any tale of warm fuzzy goodness from holidays past and present.

It all started with a simple question, asked by Cynthia Davis, our director of outreach. She is also chief organizer of Candy Cane Lane, our December event where our patient families can “shop” for their families among an array of new winter gear, clothing and sleepwear, and children can also select toys for the holidays.

Earlier this year, Cynthia met Wil Fisher, the director of external affairs at Rise Light & Power, at an event at Urban Upbound, an organization that provides resources to low-income New Yorkers to achieve economic mobility. “We were just chit chatting,” she said, “and he mentioned to me that he saw the Floating Hospital a lot in the community, and he admired it.” She then invited him to visit our main Long Island City clinic. “Once he took the tour, he fell in love with it.” They kept in touch, running into each other at community events and association meetings.

Enter Scott Spicer, Floating Hospital President Sean Granahan’s partner and an avid supporter of both Cynthia Davis and Camp Rise Up, our summer camp for teens in temporary housing, where they learn healthy behaviors, leadership and job growth skills, and prepare for the workforce or college life. Spicer, volunteered to leverage his experience in national retail sales with the money Rise Light & Power donated to maximize the number of coats we could purchase and even add on some other items such as pajamas, hats, gloves and scarves.

Scott approached Boscov’s, the country’s largest family-owned department store, which was founded in 1914 and based in Reading, Pa. With 48 stores all over the Northeast, Ohio, Delaware and Maryland, Boscov’s has a history of community partnerships. In fact, it’s one of the company’s core principles. So they were a natural partner for us to help maximize Rise Light & Power’s gift.

Scott worked with the Binghamton Boscov’s store manager, Betsy Reynolds, and corporate buyer, Rachel Meyer, exchanging spreadsheets on sizes and costs in order to maximize the purchase, as it exceeded a typical store’s bandwidth. The original goal was 250 coats, but by the time the trio finished, they were able to procure more than 360 new coats and 135 sets of pajamas, along with boxes of hats, scarves and gloves. It’s a holiday miracle beyond our most lavish sugar-spun dreams.

“This is a beautiful thing that they are doing,” Davis noted of all of the partners in this effort. “It’s a joy to know we will have coats this year to give out, and thanks to Scott and his magic we doubled it. And now we have pajamas. It’s amazing.” Not only is he doubling the value of the donation, she said he’s “doubling everything: the love, the support, the excitement. You can go all the way down a list of words, and he doubled it all.”

Beads for a purpose

Candy Cane Lane brings out the best in all of our friends, supporters and volunteers. This year, we will be distributing Floating Hospital bracelets to the children who attend Candy Cane Lane, thanks to Madeleine Richard, a volunteer who donated the materials and organized volunteers to make them.

Earlier this year, Richard, who is a neighbor of our main clinic in Long Island City, told a jewelry-making group she meets with regularly about our mission and why she wanted to help. She then gave them a template, featuring a special bead with The Floating Hospital logo along with other materials, and they began making bracelets.

The template makes it easy for anyone to sit down and complete it, allowing the volunteer situation to be very fluid. Still, of the more than 200 completed bracelets, many were made by just a couple of people, including Richard, Doris Pereya and Sara Jane Sherman.

The bracelets are sure to bring smiles to anyone who might have one, but Richard said the joy for her was in making them. “I enjoyed it, but everybody who participated said they really enjoyed doing this and what they learned about The Floating Hospital,” she said. “That was really my aim, for people to know about and remember the hospital.”