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I agree, you are a tool for saying that.

This woman's efforts are really admirable, and I feel like a tool for saying this, but she's misguided. What if everyone stopped by Journal Square (or Grove Plaza, for that matter) with supplies and food for the homeless? They'd look like campgrounds (and yeah, Journal Square already does).

Again, I'm not criticizing this lady, and we should all be so kind. But I'd rather see her devote her energies to a charity that supports the homeless and to advocating for housing to help them get off the streets.

i mean this in a truly non-sarcastic way

Ron Zeitlinger/The Jersey Journal

Gecenia Rivera pushed a cart, piled high with blankets and care packages last week, and found faces of the homeless that stirred decades-old memories? most of them bad.

Years ago, though she may not have been among the less fortunate in Journal Square in Jersey City, she was at least familiar with the misfortune-of-life department.

?My mother came from Puerto Rico and I was one of 10 children ? and we used to live out of a car,? Rivera said. ?My mom used to buy stuff from the Salvation Army (second-hand store). Her struggle inspired me.?

Rivera was accompanied by friend Lorraine Thomas as they distributed the items ? the care package included soap, lotion, hats, gloves, socks, a washcloth and a toothbrush ? to the homeless in an around the PATH station. What they didn?t hand out Rivera and Thomas donated to the Hudson County Self Help Center on Bergen Avenue, which provides services to the homeless and less fortunate.




Rivera, of Rahway, has been doing this for five years now and used to pay for all the items herself, but it became a financial burden.

?I started by doing it myself, but now I create a flier and family and friend donate the items,? the 38-year-old said. ?My goal is to have 75 blankets and care packages and whatever I am short I pay for myself.?

Rivera said it?s a small price to pay for the joy she gets in reminding the homeless that people do care about them.

?I find people to be so grateful that someone cares enough to give them a blanket and socks,? Rivera said. ?Sometimes they cry.?

Her delivery was just in time, since the temperature dipped into the 20s last Tuesday night, with whipping winds.

?It was just coincidence that I picked Tuesday,? she said. That night Rivera received 20 more blankets, and seeing how cold it was, she trekked back up to Jersey City.

?I saw the weather on television and I knew there would be people who needed to stay warm.