It started last winter when retired bed-and-breakfast owner Phyllis Johnson gathered leftover blankets from the business and took them to the homeless shelter on Cerrillos Road.

There, people were huddled by the fence, bracing themselves against the below-freezing temperatures. Johnson only had four blankets, and she had to decide who to give them to.

"I got back in the car after that and just wept," she said. "And I went home and found more blankets, more coats and gloves and hats and things, and then I started collecting them."

From there, Phyllis Johnson and her husband, Judge, parked every Saturday at the Sticks and Stones vendors lot on Old Las Vegas Highway to receive donations, soliciting winter clothes, blankets and sleeping bags on the social media site Nextdoor. In all, they d

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