Street Story: Gifts to Give

NEW BEDFORD, Mass (WPRI) - In this week's Street Story, Boy Scouts are working elbow to elbow with gang members to learn the power of giving.

Gifts to Give operates out of a mill on Cove Street in New Bedford.

The group collects and cleans clothes, toys, backpacks, stuffed animals and other items.

Often times, local teens are ordered to perform community service with the organization.

"They go, you're not gonna make me do nothing," volunteer Paula Ritchotte explains. "But after a few weeks they run in here and say 'Paula, what can I do? Should I sweep the floor?"

"It makes me feel good because I'm doing something good for kids in need that don't have anything" says Sarah Louiz, who won a Kennedy Service Award for volunteering at Gifts to Give.

The founder of the organization says the mill was once used to make better clothes. Now, the discarded clothes are helping to make better children.