New Car Dealers Donate Over 3,000 Winter Coats For Needy New Yorkers

NEW YORK, Jan. 21, 2014 -- The Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association (GNYADA) and its franchised new car dealer members have joined forces with New York Cares to collect and distribute more than 3,000 winter coats. Two trucks were needed to deliver the coats to New York Cares main collection point in midtown Manhattan today. The coats were collected by the Association and auto dealers across metro New York. GNYADA represents over 400 franchised community-based new car retailers whose philanthropic activities help support hospitals, schools, little leagues, and good causes throughout metro New York all year round.

The auto dealers surpassed their original goal of collecting 500 coats by a whopping 500%, making it the largest donation by a single organization to the New York Cares Coat Drive to date. A request by GNYADA to its members to help New York Cares support thousands of New Yorkers who will be forced to make a choice this winter between buying a warm coat and putting food on the table, heating their homes, or meeting other basic survival needs, was met with an immediate call to action by dealers. For the last 24 years, New York Cares has collected and distributed winter coats to thousands of men, women and children who would otherwise go cold.

"When we put out the call to our members to take part in this important initiative we had an overwhelming response from auto dealers, including one who donated 200 new coats to the cause," said GNYADA president Mark Schienberg.

"This is a great example of the community-based charitable activities that automobile dealers are known for and we are very proud to help New York Cares in their dedication to helping our areas neediest citizens," he continued.

"To see 3,000 coats rolling into the Coat Drive warehouse this morning was a wonderful sight," said Gary Bagley, Executive Director of New York Cares. "We haven't yet collected half of the more than 100,000 requests for winter coats we've received, so we are especially grateful to the GNYADA and its members for such an enormous donation in these final weeks of the drive."

About GNYADA: The Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association represents over 400 franchised automobile dealerships in the metro area of New York, selling more than 429,000 new and used cars each year. Collectively, they inject $27.1 billion into the economy and generate $1.83 billion in tax revenue for New York while helping to sustain a workforce of nearly 58,000 directly and indirectly. A third of these jobs are in the high-paying service department. GNYADA also operates the Center for Automotive Education & Training and organizes the New York International Automobile Show -- the largest auto show in North America -- each spring in Manhattan's Jacob Javits Convention Center.