COLUMBUS – As they have been doing for 110 years, hundreds of volunteers will spend a December Saturday braving the cold and Columbus drivers to collect funds that will provide clothing for children.
Charity Newsies’ Annual Newspaper Drive; Saturday, Dec. 9, 8:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
During the 2017 Newspaper Drive, 518 Charity Newsies volunteers dressed in white jumpsuits will station themselves at 66 intersections around central Ohio, selling special edition copies of the Columbus Dispatch with 100 percent of the money raised going towards providing new school clothes to children in Franklin County, says 2017 Drive Day chair Patrick Conley.
“People can give us whatever their heart says,” Conley said “We usually provide clothes for about 13,000 school children here in Franklin County.”
Donations in any amount can also be made directly to:
Charity Newsies Headquarters, 4300 Indianola Ave., Columbus, Ohio 43214 and online.
Since its inception in 1907, Charity Newsies has provided new school clothes to more than 500,000 children.
The organization began humbly – and spontaneously – at a restaurant at Broad and High streets downtown where three businessmen were having a meal on a cold December morning.
“They saw a young boy out selling newspapers, shivering, with no jacket on, just kind of like a short-sleeved shirt, and having trouble selling his papers,” Conley said. “So the three men decided they would go out and help the boy.”
They told passers-by that all the money would be for charity and Conley says the men sold the boy’s entire stack of papers and gave the boy the money.
Although that group of three has now grown to over 500, much like that day 110 years ago, Conley says the volunteers will stay on the streets until all the newspapers are gone.