Conicelli Pledges Support for 2010 ADA “Driving Away the Cold” Campaign

Conicelli Autoplex will donate coats for needy kids through Operation Warm and Auto Dealers Association of Greater Philadelphia.  Operation Warm is one of the largest nonprofit organizations that distribute new winter coats in the United States to children that cannot afford them.

To complement this effort, the Foundation asked the Dealer Members of the Automobile Dealers Association of Greater Philadelphia (ADAGP) to participate in the We Pledge portion of the program by donating an additional new coat for each car sold in their dealerships during the month of September. This campaign is directed to fulfill a need so basic that most of us take for granted.

Auto Dealers CARing for Kids Foundation purchased 10,000 new winter coats and, through Operation Warm, will distribute them to needy children in Philadelphia’s five-county area this fall. Conicelli Nissan, Conicelli Honda, Conicelli Toyota, Conicelli Scion, Conicelli Hyundai in Conshohocken, PA, and Conicelli Toyota in Springfield, PA have each agreed to donate an additional coat for each vehicle sold from September 1 to September 30, 2010.

Last year the combined franchises of Conicelli Autoplex donated a total of 800 coats to Operation Warm and the Automobile Dealers Association of Greater Philadelphia for the 2009 Driving Away the Cold Campaign.

The federal definition of poverty is a family of four living on an annual income below $22,050. According to Pennsylvania statistics from 2009, 430,000 children would be defined as living in poverty. With annual income of just $44,100 per year for that same family of four, the number of children more than doubles to 974,000. By federal standards, at least 150,000 children in the five-county Philadelphia area are poverty stricken. Driving Away the Cold was designed to ensure that this classification does not define the lives of these children.

For low income and poor families, parents struggle with difficult choices every day. Food or electricity? Clothes or rent? The gift of a new winter coat to a child in need allows for just one easy choice for the parent but it warms the body and soul of the child. It supercharges the recipient's self esteem and helps him or her to arrive to school warm, on time and ready to learn. It reminds that child that he or she is valued.

For more info, please check out Conicelli's Press Release for Operation Warm.

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