An ecumenical group of volunteers served about 125 homeless and economically vulnerable people in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon, November 26, inside a church hall at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church on West 55th Street. The volunteers were from that church, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and nearby Saint Thomas Episcopal Church.

“‘Warmly Wrapped’ is an Ecumenical Outreach Partnership (EOP) event for members of the Midtown homeless community and vulnerable families to select winter clothing essential to stay safe and warm during inclement weather this winter,” said Colin Nykaza, director of Evangelization at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Nykaza described the five-hour annual event as “a shopping-like experience to our guests, complete with shopping stops for coats, hats and gloves, sweatpants, hoodies, hygiene kits, and a meal. This is a real collective moment of service and thanksgiving to some 125 people.”

One of the cathedral volunteers, Halima Haider, told The Good Newsroom onsite, “I think it’s so important to give back to the community – and I’m just so happy that there’s a resource like this for individuals in need who can really benefit from it, especially around the holidays.”

Christine Boyle, director of Outreach and Missions at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian, said, “In 2017, the three churches came together; it was really out of a great moment of: ‘What if we consolidated our resources to better support the homeless?’ And that effort recognized what the impact could be. So the partnership started, and it’s been continuing since.”