With eight Christmas blanket and sock drives completed by Proyecto Happy Hearts, Christy Gomez’s grassroots, nearly-one-woman good deed drives, and she’s still putting her heart into every event.
“I’m a crazy, psycho empath. I work a 40-plus hour a week job. I was just promoted this year and its affected my ability to plan this out,” Gomez told Spectrum News.
But the rush and the joy of helping families in the toughest time of their lives keep her coming back to it.
Gomez’s blanket drives began on Black Friday nine years ago. She was on her couch and in a bad mood. All she saw on social media was people celebrating their own, personal shopping scores and jealousy was getting the better of her.
“I was grouchy, mad that I could never shop on Black Friday, and then I realized: I had a blanket, I was watching cable, rent was ready to be paid and life wasn’t so bad,” Gomez said. She felt selfish and even a bit annoyed at the people taking advantage of Black Friday deals for their own benefit.
So she decided to do something about it.
Gomez made a post of her own, asking if people would be willing to meet her at a park, where she would collect blankets and socks and find a place to drop them off. A friend offered their bar as a drop-point for the blankets, and Gomez was stunned by the turnout.
The bounty of blankets and socks were delivered, by hand, to Comunidad Cesar Chavez, an East LA transitional living facility.
That was the beginning of her personal philanthropy project, Projecto Happy Hearts, as well as the birth of her ”Linus Movement” drives — its name inspired by the thoughtful ”Peanuts” comic character rarely seen without his trusty security blanket.
Not even the COVID pandemic slowed Gomez. She and her volunteers (her husband and friends) masked up and grabbed donations from the waiting trunks of donors. The donations have grown alongside her reputation.
Los Angeles Family Housing staff — the organization that operates Comunidad Cesar Chavez — estimate that her donations have ranged from 50 to more than 100 blankets each drive.
That she’s been there, in the good years and the bad means a great deal to the families of Comunidad Cesar Chavez.
“I think it’s partly the volume (of donations) and partly her,” said Kelsey Madigan, LA Family Housing’s Director of Interim Housing.
Families and kids know Gomez, and they know that she cares about them. The staff at Chavez know that her work — which carries on throughout the year with Easter baskets and gift card drives — is more than a simple drop-off.
“Whenever she comes by, the team feels it, and the participants feel it. It’s not just boxes of stuff. She engages with kids and engages with the staff, which is the best part about it,” Madigan said.
The blankets and socks that Gomez donates are also a boost to the families — the kids are able to enjoy blankets with their favorite characters and heroes, and adults are able to wrap up with blankets that tend to be more premium than the shelter might otherwise be able to provide.
The goal, she said, is to eventually get non-profit status to ease the minds of people she’s seeking to work with. Gomez might be forced to slow down soon — a recent health scare has compounded her already busy year and nearly derailed planning for this edition of the Linus Movement. But the support that she’s gotten from her friends, loved ones, and even her employer, who last year rented a van to transport donations, has made it possible.
“My husband and I, we’ll argue every morning about how unorganized we are. But then we get there, and we’re excited,” Gomez said, laughing. “It’s just grassroots, straight-up — let’s just help each other.”
Proyecto Happy Hearts’ “Linus Movement” blanket drive will take place on Saturday, Dec. 18, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Cerdas Auto Service, 1867 E. First Street, Los Angeles. For more, visit instagram.com/proyectohappyhearts.