Giving Rye is a feature series highlighting non-profits and community groups in and around the City of Rye. Today meet Kate Bialo of Furniture Sharehouse.
Your Name: Kate Bialo
Name of your organization: Furniture Sharehouse
Your role: Volunteer Executive Director
MyRye.com: Tell us your organization’s mission
Bialo: As Westchester’s only furniture bank, we collect gently used, unwanted furniture and give it a second life by distributing it FOR FREE to economically disadvantaged families and individuals across Westchester County. We keep thousands of pounds of furniture out of the waste stream while furnishing hundreds of homes each year for the people who need it the most.
How long have you operated in or around Rye?
Bialo: We have been in operation since 2007, and have been furnishing families in need for over 18 years. Our warehouse is located at the Westchester County Airport, but we collect furniture donations from all over the County and furnish families in need throughout Westchester.
What programming or work is the organization best known for?
- We provide free furniture to individuals and families who are living in empty apartments and cannot afford even the most essential furniture.
- We provide new twin beds, toddler beds and cribs for children in need with our Beds For Kids Program.
- We help keep thousands of pounds of usable furniture from the waste stream and give it a new life with families in need.
Looking forward to 2026, what will be your top initiatives?
- We will continue to publicize our mission county-wide to make sure we are reaching the organizations working with those who need but can’t afford basic furniture.
- We will continue to expand our work with our member agencies to help them furnish any special residential or program facilities they may have.
- We will continue to offer “remote” appointments for clients who may not be able to attend at our warehouse for whatever reason.
Tell us about the population you serve and how they can get involved with your programming and services.
Bialo: Our clients include those moving out of homelessness, escaping domestic violence, struggling with mental or physical disabilities, aging out of foster care, recovering from personal or natural disasters, or just unable to afford even the most basic furniture. We partner with over 40 member agencies that are already working with these populations, and they refer them to us if they find that they are in need of furniture.
Are you a 501(c)(3) non-profit with tax exempt status?
Bialo: Yes.
Looking back across 2025, what were your organization’s top achievements?
- We continue to furnish as many families as we can in this challenging environment where clients have even fewer resources due to inflation and cuts to government benefit programs, and where some are even afraid to venture out to utilize our services.
- We provided furniture and design assistance to several new member agencies for their physical facilities — Lilac House, a home for women exiting prison, and Friends of Recovery, an agency providing addiction recovery counseling.
How can local residents support your organization?
Bialo: Local residents can assist us with our mission to end furniture poverty by donating good condition furniture that meets our donation guidelines; donating money to our annual campaign to support our operations; spreading the word to friends and neighbors about the need and how they can help.
We also have a monthly Third Saturday of Service where volunteer groups can come to our warehouse and help with inventory organizing and other tasks.
What local Rye residents and area businesses have been the longest, steadiest supporters of your organization?
Bialo: We are so fortunate to have been supported by Rye Presbyterian Church with generous annual grants every year since 2009, and with volunteer assistance from their RPC Youth Group. Their thrift shop donates excess items from the thrift shop at the end of the season.
We are also supported by Carpet Trends, which has donated surplus carpets to us.
Tell us about you:
How long have you been in your current role?
Bialo: I founded Furniture Sharehouse in 2007 and have been its volunteer executive director since inception.
Is the role full time or part time? Paid or volunteer?
Bialo: I am a volunteer, and the job is more full-time than it probably should be, but that is because I have been immersed in it for 18 years and don’t know how to stop! I do not have another “day job”.
How would your friends and family describe you in one word?
Bialo: Dedicated!
Where did you grow up?
Bialo: Houston, Texas and Bombay, India from age 3 – 9.
What principles guide you when you have to make a difficult decision?
Bialo: My overriding concern is how my actions will affect my family and friends.
Can you share a time when failure taught you more than success ever could?
Bialo: I guess in general, I have had some not so great ideas over the years, but realized that even if they weren’t as successful as I had envisioned them being, at least I learned what doesn’t work and make sure I don’t repeat them.
What excites you most about the future—for yourself or for the world?
Bialo: I would like everyone to have decent housing and live in comfort and dignity, and I hope that Furniture Sharehouse continues to play an important role in that dream.
Where do you live and how many years have you lived there?
Bialo: I have lived in Larchmont since 1989.
Thanks Kate!
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