Community
Giving Back on Mother’s Day
www.qns.com I LIC COURIER I MARCH 2018 37
BY ANGELA MATUA
AMATUA@QNS.COM
A Long Island City group founded by
two mothers aiming to donate resources
and time to neighbors in need is looking
for help to make Mother’s Day special
for families currently living in local home-less
shelters.
Julz Donald started Super Community
LIC three years ago with the help of
Long Island City resident Marjorie Phil-lips.
After leaving her job in the city to
work for herself, she began partnering
with the nonprofit The Floating Hospital
to donate baby items and toiletries to
local families.
“I teamed up with a mom in Long
Island City here because we were like
this is an amazing place to live and we
really love our community and what
we wanted to do was to celebrate the
community but also facilitate ways to
give back,” Donald said. “We knew there
were a lot of people here with lots of
resources — money and time to give but
not always being able to give because
it’s not facilitated for them.”
Every month, Donald and Phillips
collect items from Long Island City fami-lies
and transport them to The Floating
Hospital’s headquarters at 41-43 Cres-cent
St. Staff from the nonprofit, which
provides healthcare services to medically
undeserved communities, then donates
them to local homeless shelters.
Last year, her group began to collect
beauty items and toiletries to create
beauty bags for Mother’s Day. Though
the goal was to hand out 100 beauty
bags, local residents provided enough
items and bags to hand out 450 beauty
bags to women in domestic violence
shelters.
“It’s awesome,” she said. “I’ve lived
here for nearly seven years now and
there’s something very special about
this community in that everybody bands
together when anyone has an issue.”
The bags were also given to children
in family shelters so that they could hand
them to their mothers as gifts for the big
day. Donald said the group frequently
receives thank-you cards from mothers
and added that The Floating Hospital
asked her to be board member last year
after her work for the group.
“You and your SuperCommunityLIC
group have given the gift of human-ity
to those who were on the verge
of defeat and despair,” the nonprofit
wrote in a letter to the group. “You
have literally helped to put lives and
families back together. On behalf of
the mothers and toddlers who are resi-dents
in the family shelters we serve;
The Floating Hospital staff thank you
and know that your time and efforts
are not taken for granted.”
This year, Donald is hosting a number
of events to collect money for the bags
and items. The group recently had a
bingo night and were able to collect
$1,200. They gave The Floating Hospital
$1,000 directly and saved $200 for the
beauty bags.
On March 22, they will host a trivia
night at Woodbines at 8 p.m. to raise
money for the bags. It costs $20 to
enter and there will be prizes and drink
and food specials for all participants.
Hudson + Bleecker, a local shop
that sells makeup bags and travel ac-cessories,
will again donate bags for the
event. Donald said her client, Unilever,
is also looking to donate items.
The bags usually contain shampoo,
conditioner, makeup, jewelry, nail polish
and other beauty items.
“The moms are never spending
their money on stuff for themselves
anymore,” Donald said. “We all know
what a lipstick can do and how it can
make you feel.”
On May 6, The Loft LIC will host
Super Community Volunteer Day. The
restaurant will provide brunch from 11
to noon and from 2 to 4 p.m., volunteers
will assemble the beauty bags. Children
are also welcome to the event.
Donald will be collecting donations
at her home at 47-20 Center Blvd. Apt.
#416 and Phillips will collect items at
155 Borden Ave. Apt. #19J.
Photos courtesy of Julz Donald
