By Rebecca Lenkiewicz
It’s winter in Connecticut…and it’s cold! While most of us are out buying new winter coats, gloves, and hats for the impending weather, some are clinging to the tattered jackets they’ve had for years.
Alecia-Lynn Langlois of Hartford works at Black Eyed Sally’s in Hartford. About two months ago, she encountered a homeless man not too far from her workplace with nothing for shelter except a trash bag to lie on. She asked if he was ok. His reply, “No Ma’am,” startled her. After asking if he needed anything, he again replied, “No.”
Alecia took it upon herself to provide the man with some soup and water so at the very least she could make herself “feel better about the situation. I thought about how terrible I feel after a night of just sleeping on the floor or a couch, with blankets and a roof over my head,” she explains. Filling his stomach for the next few hours would be ok for now, but she could not ignore the fact that this man did not request any help.
A few weeks later she found herself walking out of Stop & Shop and into a similar situation. This time it was in the midst of a very cold day. As Alecia describes it, “The first blistering cold that no one wants to go outside in.”
So Alecia began a drive for coats, hats, gloves, shoes, non-perishable food, and anything people were willing to give to aid those who were not asking for the help they need and deserve. She asked friends and family through an event on Facebook to help her out and bring anything they could to Black Eyed Sally’s. She and her friends then personally distributed reusable bags filled with clothes and other essentials to local food pantries and shelters.
Co-worker Tom Grenier of South Windsor, brought Alecia’s story to the attention of his fellow Communications classmates at Central Connecticut State University. As a class, we decided to push Alecia’s idea further. We’ve already begun documenting and promoting our cause and we ask that you help us achieve our goal of collecting 2,000 pounds of goods to donate by Tuesday, December 18.
To learn more, visit “Two Week Ton” on YouTube.com. Donations may be brought to the CCSU Communications Department (1615 Stanley Street New Britain, CT, Vance Academic Center, room 310), or we can arrange for a personal pick-up: just email rebecca.lenkiewicz@my.ccsu.edu. Help us heat-up Hartford!
