Utican Shares Holiday Spirit

Utica, NY (WIBX) - December welcomes the usual catch phrases...the holiday spirit and secret santa. The epitome of those words can be found in a Utica woman who is duing her part to keep area kids warm this winter.

"It's just something that was instilled [in me]. I was always taught, when you have, you give, when you don't have, you still give," said Keanna Lilley, who has donated more than two dozen gently used winter coats to the United Way of the Valley and Greater Utica Area.

The coats came from her closet and from friends and family, she said.

"I looked at these coats and I'm thinking, 'You know somebody might need these coats.' I just decided I would call the United Way and I talked to Susan Woods and the coats got to people who really needed them, especially the kids at [Martin Luther King School.]"

Lilley says she knows what it's like first hand to not have things and 'be in a bind.'

"Somebody doesn't have a tree, somebody doesn't have a Christmas dinner, some kid is wishing for a toy under the tree and they don't have it. Even in a jam, I've been so blessed for the things that I have."

Lilley is encouraging eveyone to think of the less fortunate during the holiday season.