Goodness knows I love my Goodwill, but too often, I'll check out the price of an armchair or child's desk and gasp at their nerve. And if I'm giving my stuff away, I don't want it to be priced so that the people who need it can't afford it.
Giving It Away. NOW.
Instead of just grumbling about the state of things (like I just did), seven years ago, Kate Bialo, with the help of The Junior League of Westchester on the Sound, created something amazing and essential-- Furniture Sharehouse, a furniture bank out by the Westchester Airport.
I met Kate Bialo, the Executive Director of Furniture Sharehouse, on an icy Wednesday morning.
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| This is Kate Bialo. I want to be her--all brains and all heart...and organized. |
Kind-eyed volunteers were helping clients select items of furniture to help rebuild their lives. Some lost everything they owned after being evicted from apartments. Some were foster kids who had aged out of the system. Some had run from abusive partners with nothing but their children and their lives. One bleary-eyed, but smiling, Yonkers woman had worked through the night, then rode two different buses so she wouldn't miss her chance to get her children beds, chairs, and a table for their new apartment.
Bless the volunteers: the temperature, inside and out, was exactly the same 27 degrees on the day I visited.
So, how does this place work?
Furniture Sharehouse takes referrals from 30 local agencies, which often cover the $25 referral fee for their clients. Based on availability, need, and family size, clients then get to select essential items: mattresses and headboards, some chairs, a table, a sofa, a dresser, a nightstand, a mirror, two lamps, two end tables, a few incidentals... Each client's choices are identified by color; piles of furniture--tagged pink, yellow, blue, etc--are collected and moved into trucks by more volunteers.
Delivery fees--$75 to the curb or $150 to set up inside--are covered by the clients. This expense alone is too heavy for many, Bialo notes. Ashamed, many will simply miss their appointment--for which they waited 6 weeks--because they can not cover the entire delivery cost.
A new start, about to be loaded into the delivery truck
Since the Furtniture Sharehouse opened 7 years ago, it has given away more than 37,000 pieces of furniture to more than 7,000 families.
Impressed? Want to help? Here's how!
1. Donate Goods: Here's the list of what they accept (Don't worry. We'll find another place to take your massive buffet and your waterbed....)
The Sharehouse itself has very short business hours for drop off: Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m, plus the 3rd Saturday of each month from 9:30 to 11:30 am.
But they do have MUNICIPAL COLLECTION BINS:
CITY OF WHITE PLAINS: 87 Gedney Way, Weds. 2:00 - 4:00 pm, Sat. 9:00 am to 12:00 pm (April - October only)
LARCHMONT/MAMARONECK: Maxwell Avenue Recycling Facility: Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri 8:00 - 3:00; Sat. 9:00 - 11:45; closed Wednesdays (year-round)
VILLAGE OF TUCKAHOE: 15 Marblehead Road (year-round); Mon - Fri 6:30 -11:00 am & 12:30 - 2:00 pm
The bad news is that you generally have to be a resident to drop off, and no mattresses--which they desperately need!--can be dropped at the bins.
Clearly, we need to set up Municipal Collection Bins here in the River Towns.
2. Donate Funds: Bialo needs to raise more than $80,000 each year, just to cover warehouse rental and trucking costs. Any amount you can donate will help, and it's tax-deductible: Click here to learn more.
So, Westchester Friends, be proactive. Tell your friends about the Furniture Sharehouse now and save them from saying, "Oh, gosh, I wish I knew about that place before I threw all that stuff away!"
Not a Westchester Reader? Check out the web site of Furniture Bank Association of North America, which lists their US and Canadian Furniture banks by state. (And may I just add, good show, Northern California!)
Do Good, and make this Badger happy--Donate Today!
Copyright 2013, Tanya Monier
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