Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
Volunteers with Backpacks for the Street gathered on the Lower East Side on Sunday to honor the nonprofit's two founders, Jayson Conner and Jeffrey Newman, who died within days of each other earlier this summer, according to The New York Times.
Conner, 48, died June 28 of a heart attack at the couple's Manhattan home. Newman, 58, died on July 2. A cause of death was not revealed.
The couple launched Backpacks for the Street in 2018, filling backpacks with essentials such as socks, toiletries, notebooks and wet wipes for New Yorkers experiencing homelessness.
What began with a handful of backpacks grew into an operation with nearly 40 volunteers that has distributed more than 180,000 backpacks across Manhattan.
Each week, volunteers assembled more than 100 backpacks before distribution ... in which Conner and Newman emphasized treating every person with dignity and compassion.
"It was fascinating to see how well they managed to communicate with people on the streets," volunteer Kristina Kashtanova told the Times. "They taught me how to be a better human and how to talk to people who were so different from me."
Volunteers are discussing how to continue the program, though no decisions have been made.
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