Four thousand children in the New York area will have a warmer winter this year thanks to the generosity of Bear U.S.A., Inc.’s jacket donation program coordinated by KACF.

At a ceremony at the Williamsburg Community Center in Brooklyn on Dec. 6, Bear and KACF presented the New York City Housing Authority with 4,000 down winter jackets worth more than half a million dollars. The Housing Authority will distribute the jackets to children living in its developments in the City’s five boroughs. Bear and KACF selected the Housing Authority because of the programs it provides for children, which include sports, literacy and computer skills courses. Bear and KACF support the positive life and character-building educational and athletic programs offered by the Housing Authority and its efforts to make such programs available to the City’s youths.

The donation reflects the commitment of Bear, a clothing brand sold internationally and identified with hip, contemporary styles, and KACF to the New York community. Last year Bear donated 2,000 jackets.

“KACF is proud to have sponsored the down jacket program with Bear,” said KACF board member Jun Whang. “This is our way of giving back to the community.”

A choir sings at the Bear-KACF down jacket presentation ceremony.

Thomas Hong, founder and president of Bear, instituted the jacket donation program last year as a way to return the generosity shown by the City to the Hong family nearly 14 years ago. In 1992, during the Washington Heights riots, the sneaker store owned by the Hong family was looted and vandalized. In response, New York City residents came to the aid of the Hong family, offering encouragement and gifts. One anonymous donor gave the family a check for $25,000 to rebuild their business.

 

The $25,000 Challenge

The Khym Foundation, a private foundation established by David Khym, has presented KACF with a year-end challenge. If KACF can raise $25,000 during the holiday season, the Khym Foundation will match those donations, up to $25,000.

KACF, a nonprofit group based in New York and founded in late 2002, raises funds to support local social service organizations, including those that serve the needs of disadvantaged Korean and Asian Americans in the metropolitan New York area, such as the elderly, disabled, victims of domestic violence and children. KACF is also engaged in groundbreaking initiatives to foster intercommunity dialogue and understanding. 

Of the total amount raised, three of KACF’s grantee organizations will receive $5,000 each. They are: MilAl Missions, a nonprofit faith-based social service agency that serves mentally disabled Korean Americans and their families; Rainbow Center, which offers bilingual support services to women of Korean and Asian descent in bicultural family crises; and the Asian Women’s Christian Association, which provides professional counseling, social welfare services, cultural and educational programs for elderly Asian AmericanS.

More than 4,000 down Bear jackets were given to New York City children at a ceremony in December.