16 JANUARY 11, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Middle Village student bring warmth to more than 1,000 people
BY RYAN KELLEY
RKELLEY@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
TWITTER @R_KELLEY6
With frigid temperatures and
a major snow storm leaving
New York City shivering to
start the new year, one Middle Village
student continued his mission to help
his neighbors stay warm.
Gabriel Gonzalez, a fourth-grade
student at P.S./I.S. 87, organized a local
coat drive for the second straight
year with his mother, Mati Gonzalez,
and the results were even better than
expected. They call themselves “Team
Life Changers,” and they collected a
total of 143 coats at two drop-off locations,
P.S./I.S. 87 in Middle Village and
Ultimate Champions Tae Kwon Do in
Maspeth, according Mati Gonzalez.
The coats were then brought to New
York Cares, which holds an annual coat
drive.
While that was less than the 223
coats collected last year, they also
received $750 in donations that was
given to One Warm Coat. For every
dollar that One Warm Coat receives it
provides warmth to two people. Therefore,
Mati Gonzalez said that “Team
Life Changers” was able to help a total
of 1,643 people between the physical
coats and the fi nancial donations.
Gabriel Gonzalez organized his second annual “Team Life Changers” coat drive.
In an email to QNS, Mati Gonzalez
said that Gabriel’s goal was just to
provide warmth for 230 people so he
could help more people than last year.
“He says it’s so awesome and
amazing to be able to give people
the gift of warmth and knows that
it wouldn’t be possible without all of
Photo courtesy of Mati Gonzalez
those who supported him,” Gonzalez
wrote. “So thank you for making
his ‘big, big dream’ come true in a
HUGE way.”
