“It feels great that I can people,” says Lane Elementary 3rd grader Ava Hardy. “I want them to be warm during these cold days.” 

On Wednesday, January 15, young Ms. Hardy dropped off more than 100 warm coats for the residents of the Brookdale Resource Center. This is her sixth year collecting coats and donating them to people, and her third year doing so at Brookdale.  

“I’m trying to teach my daughter to be community-driven from an early age,” says her Mother Quintessa Hardy. “And this aligns with why Brookdale was originally created…to keep people warm in the cold months.” 

“Ava has done a really good job reaching out to partners, organizing the collection, and creating a true collaborative effort,” says Alison Bender, Brookdale’s Executive Director. 

And Ms. Hardy’s passion for the project truly shown through in the delivery of the coats. Though only nine years old, she was the first one to the truck to grab the bags of coats, directed the group of Mercer University students and Brookdale staff where they needed to be, and even bravely jumped in front of news cameras to give interviews.  

“It feels great [to do this work], and I hope the people who I donate the coats to are happy,” she adds. 

This is a multi-month campaign, with Ms. Hardy reaching out to partners to help collect the coats beginning in October. Partners in the effort include Unique Beauty, LLC., the District Attorney’s Office, Mayor Lester Miller, Macon-Middle Georgia Black Pages, Dillard’s at The Shoppes at River Crossing, The Central Georgia Coalition of Black Businesses, and the Macon Black Pages.