SPIRIT OF GIVING GETS RESULTS FOR AREA NEEDY

BUSINESSES, CHURCHES, INDIVIDUALS HELP MAKE HOLIDAY SEASON MORE BEARABLE

Two years ago Brian Streidel's eyes were opened when he drove past a homeless man on Pennsylvania Avenue.

"I was shocked," said Streidel, vice president of his family's Classic Clothing retail vintage clothing stores. "The man had no shoes, no coat, a tattered blanket . . . and people were walking past him."

Knowing his company's Southeast warehouse was chock-full of clothing, Streidel called Mitch Snyder, director of the Community for Creative Non-Violence, an advocacy group for the homeless.

"I said, 'Would a thousand overcoats help?' He said, 'Are you kidding?' " Streidel recounted yesterday.

Streidel delivered the coats two weeks later, and tomorrow, he'll fit 3,000 people at CCNV's Second and D streets NW shelter with winter coats.

Winter coats are just one of the myriad ways in which area businesses, churches, individuals and the D.C. government are coming together to make the holiday season more festive and the encroaching winter more bearable for homeless and needy people.

The Adolph Coors Co., brewers of Coors beer, will make its third annual holiday donation of 5,000 pairs of shoes to children of low-income and public assistance families Sunday at the D.C. Armory in conjunction with the D.C. Department of Human Services.

Antoinette Gardner, chief of the department's volunteer office, said the armory will be set up like a shoe store and children identified by caseworkers will come in to be fitted for shoes and receive a "goody bag" from Santa Claus.

Gardner said the department will distribute more than 2,000 food baskets next week -- each including a turkey, fresh vegetables and nonperishable items donated by area businesses and individuals -- to needy families.

Food baskets were distributed Wednesday to 157 families at Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church in Northwest at a party sponsored by the Cooperative Urban Ministry Center, a coalition of about 30 area churches.

Tommy Goss, owner of the Sign of the Whale restaurants, is putting on a Christmas party sponsored by donations from patrons, friends and businesses today for handicapped and autistic children from the St. John's Child Development Center.

Last week, children in D.C. Human Services foster homes were treated to gifts from 143 members of Congress and a holiday party on Capitol Hill, Gardner said, and this week the Downtown Jaycees sponsored a holiday shopping trip for needy youngsters.

A number of retail merchants in Ward 7, prompted by council member H.R. Crawford, purchased toys and food with donations solicited from customers throughout the year, said retailer Mort Davis.

At Classic Clothing's P Street SE warehouse yesterday, Streidel and Steve Christy, a resident of the Calvert Shelter recently employed by Streidel, helped load hundreds of coats into vans and trucks from about 30 Washington and Baltimore organizations. He said he hopes to distribute 30,000 coats during the weekend.

Sister Pilar Chamorro, adult education and youth coordinator at the Spanish Community Center in Adams-Morgan, said the 800 to 1,000 coats the community center received from Streidel will "disperse real quickly."

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.