The chill in the air has suddenly arrived in New York City. Summer has said goodbye with a quickness - we're looking at lows in the 40's by this weekend. Which pretty well explains why most of our friends have skipped town.
So does that mean we close up shop for the winter? No way. You see, not everyone leaves for the winter. Some don't have a choice. There are many reasons why; but yes, people do sleep outside in New York in the winter. And we'll be here, outside with them, doing whatever we can to help them out, because we're too hard-headed and stupid to think of anything else!!
For The Porch, this means that hoodie season has officially arrived. While socks are still precious and the item we will continue to carry at all times, hoodies come to the forefront this time of year. Now here in NYC, hoodies alone are not sufficient to get through the dead of winter, but right now they do the job. Luckily, they are pretty cheap to come by at the discount stores and we should be able to stock up without breaking the bank. Ahh, the joys of not having to pay rent, because we don't have a building!!!
Distribution on the street can get tricky, because once word gets out that you are handing out free hoodies, it can turn into a mob scene and you end up picked clean before you even know what happened. So we'll be working on a strategy to make sure that the hoodies go to those who truly need them.
This time of year is, for me, somewhat refreshing. It usually involves a lot of hard work without a lot of visible rewards, but it ends up paying dividends in ways that I can't explain. As my wonderful friend Ken Loyd says, the little birds see what you are doing when you "pay your dues" all winter long, and they tell everyone about it when spring comes. So here's to the little birds. Oh, and of course, if you feel inclined to support what we're doing, now would be a great time, since we have a lot of hoodies to buy. Enjoy your Fall, wherever you are (well, not wherever. If you're in the Southern Hemisphere, enjoy your spring).
