Agents of charity

The phones were ringing off the hook this day at Bryce Rea Associates, a real estate office in Little Neck, but the conversations were often not what they seemed.
“The Princeton? At 2 p.m.? We’ll try to get over there,” said Carolyn Meenan, an Associate Broker, to the person on the other end of the line. One would think in this market, a real estate agent would be more definite.
“She can’t come – we have to pick up,” Meehan informed the other associate in the office on this raw Saturday, Pattie Rifino – her partner in one of the longest-running clothing drives in Queens.
Meehan and Rifino began this saga about eight years ago, as a one-month winter coat drive for the Little Neck Lions Club. “The response was so good that first year, the next year we collected for two months,” Meehan recalled. “From there, it just grew.”
Neither of the women, both of whom have been honored by their fellow Lions for their good works, can remember exactly when the “winter” dropped off from the drive and it became a year-round effort.
But for the last few years, the duo sort and sometimes package up the coats, men’s, women’s and children’s clothing that get dropped off at their office, located at 25-02 Northern Boulevard in Little Neck, nearly every day.
Then they set off to distribute parcels to several shelters and religious institutions in Queens, Brooklyn and even the Bronx.
“Some of the places we go to, they’ve told us ‘Don’t get out of the car ¬– call and we’ll come out,’” Rifino said. “Once, we got out of the car and people appeared out of nowhere asking what we had inside. It was a little scary,” she admitted.
Meenan chuckled, now that the story was set safely in the past. “We got yelled at – and we don’t get out of the car there anymore,” she said. The two agreed that their favorite drop-off spot is the Padre Pio Shelter for Homeless Men in the South Bronx, operated by Capuchin monks of the Franciscan Order.
“They’re so sweet in their gray robes,” Meenan laughed. “They always want to know who we want them to pray for.”
While a lot of realtors pray for the market to improve, Bryce Rea’s senior agent, Rod O’Connell, shrugs and takes the piles and racks of donations in the odd corners of the offices in stride. He’s considered the “Mayor of Douglaston” in some circles and has his own long list of civic commitments.
With the way things have been going, Meehan and Rifino have been noticing that charity, having begun at home in the Little Neck/Douglaston area, is finding its way back.
“Every once in a while there will be someone who used to donate in the past that will come in and ask if we have a coat in a certain size,” Meehan confided. “Maybe they’ve had a reversal – we never ask,” she said.
“We just mark a bag with the coat size and leave it in the office with no name on it. Then it’s gone.”
If you have coats, or any new or gently-used clothing to donate, call 718-225-9000 and ask for Carolyn or Pattie.