Two brothers from Brooklyn who've been paying it forward for years are giving blankets and handwritten notes to the homeless and have little helpers of their own this holiday season.

Nick and Mike Fiorito were at P.S. 176, the school they went to, hoping to make a difference for thousands of people this winter.

They say they are bringing the students along for the ride to show them the power in giving.

The brothers started “Blankets of Hope” three years ago as a small family project.  

"A way to give back during the holiday season and it is kind of taken on a life of its own, grown into this big thing that we see today,” says Mike Fiorito.

At first their goal was to give about 100 homeless people blankets and their handwritten notes of hope, but now the goal is 10,000.

The pair is raising money using their GoFundMe page to purchase the blankets, and they're enlisting school children to write notes of their own with all types of inspiring messages.

The brothers say it's about so much more than handing out blankets on a cold winter day. 

"They are getting this feeling that they actually matter. It's not just ‘I'm cold,’ but when thousands of people are walking by you every day it's easy to feel worthless and so we make them feel like a normal human being,” says Mike Fiorito.