44 THE QUEENS COURIER • BUZZ • OCTOBER 8, 2020 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
buzz
Photo courtesy of Roseann Ramos
Maspeth Miss New York organizes walk
to donate hygiene products to homeless
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
this opportunity.”
products weeks ago, but still has
aacevedo@schnepsmedia.com
Th e 25-year-old, who is currently studying
more to go.
@QNS
social work at York College, collected
“While we did hand out a lot of them,
donations from friends and family.
there was a ton of homeless in the city and
Roseann Ramos has been volunteering
In the end, the donations amounted to
I couldn’t hit them all. And then when I
to help the homeless for many years now
more than she anticipated.
got all of these donations, I wanted to get
— but this year, she had to switch it up a bit
“I sent out an Amazon wishlist and
these out to as many people as possible, but
due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
spread it across my social media,” Ramos
asked myself how do I do that?” she said.
Ramos, who is also the reigning Miss
said. “I apparently made this so easy for
“It was like 8 a.m., I was driving to work,
New York for the fairly new Queens City of
everybody because within a week, I had
and I came up with the idea to send separate
the Hudson pageant, created Project H4H
boxes and boxes and boxes of hygiene
teams to Manhattan.”
out of a desire to provide hygiene products
products just showing up at my house.”
Ramos and her friends are creating
to homeless people.
So far, she’s organized about 150 packs of
groups to help with the task, and are still
“It actually stems from a co-worker
hygiene products to hand out.
looking for volunteers. Th ose interested in
of mine who passed away,” Ramos said.
In order to distribute the supplies,
helping can reach out to her via Instagram:
“Every year on his birthday, he would walk
Ramos had to get creative, as some pantries
@missny_qcoth.
the streets of New York with his old clothes
and shelters weren’t accepting donations
In the last few months, homeless people
or things that he didn’t need anymore and
like before due to COVID-19 regulations.
across New York City have faced mixed
give them to those who needed them. So
She decided the best way to distribute
messages from city offi cials and disparaging
to memorialize him on his birthday, his
the items would be by creating groups to
comments from community members
family asked us to come and join. My two
walk the streets of Manhattan with her.
— particularly as it pertains to homeless
friends and I, my two co-workers who then
Ramos tapped friends Brittany Ramos
shelters in the Upper West Side.
became lifelong friends, kind of jumped at
and Pamela Denkiewicz to help her distribute
But Ramos said people oft en forget
homeless people are just people.
“Th ey still have feelings, dreams, hopes
and they want to accomplish something,”
she said. “Most times when I’m doing
these walks, one of the most asked questions
is, ‘Do you know where can I fi nd a
job?’ or ‘Do you know who’s hiring?’ or ‘Do
you know where I can go to get shelter or
food?’ Th ey’re really just asking for basic
needs, they want to provide for themselves.
So I think there is an assumption that people
choose to be homeless, and that’s simply
not the case.”
Ramos hopes to continue this work, and
is already prepping for her annual winter
clothing drive as well.
“Th e homeless community is really fantastic
because if they see you handing
out something, they’ll actually let everybody
else that they know is in need know,”
Ramos said. “Th ey’re a really tight knit
community, and not a lot of people know
that.”
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