MANHATTAN, N.Y. (PIX11) -- In this holiday season of giving gifts and receiving them, one Upper West Side woman is trying to start a movement to help her neighbors.
“We met in Riverside Park,” Joe Mauri, an Upper West Side resident, told PIX11 News. “She has a very kind heart and the spirit of giving,” he added.
The 95-year-old man is so grateful for his Upper West Side neighbor who clearly has a big heart.
When Marianne Hettinger saw Joe in the neighborhood shivering on a cold night without a warm jacket on, the 60-year-old filmmaker went to a nearby store to buy him one.
“I went to 260 final sale and saw a coat that looks like the one my friend has,” Hettinger, also a ballroom dancer and actress, told PIX11 News. “It fit him perfectly,” she added.
Marianne wrote about Joe and his new puffy jacket in the West Side Rag and now more and more neighbors are coming forward to help Joe and others.
Marianne’s professional dancing partner, Jose Solano, went out and bought Joe a new pair of shoes and fresh socks to go with them.
“That’s the way I was brought up I’m from the Dominican Republic,” Solano told PIX11 News. “I was brought up very simple and humble. You help the people that need it. Whatever I can do is fine,” he added.
Since Marianne’s article and Facebook post, she has been flooded with requests from others on how to help.
One wants to take Joe boot shopping at Tiptop, another wants to help other people living at his senior residence on West 73 Street with whatever they need.
“If you reach out to somebody else, if you have compassion and you help them, just to see the light in their eyes and gratitude, it makes you feel so much better,” Hettinger told PIX11 News.
Joe Mauri agreed.
“I want to thank her so much,” Mauri told PIX11 News. “She is wonderful. I can feel her good spirit all the time,” he added.
If you would like to find other ways to help your neighbors on the Upper West Side, you can reach out to Marianne at [email protected].
Article From:
pix11.com
English (US) ·