Giving Rye: Meet Furniture Sharehouse

Giving Rye is a new occasional feature highlighting non-profits and community groups in and around the City of Rye. Today meet Kate Bialo of Furniture Sharehouse, Westchester’s Furniture Bank.

Your Name: Kate Bialo

Name of your organization:  Furniture Sharehouse, Westchester’s Furniture Bank

Your role:  Executive Director (volunteer)

MyRye.com: Tell us your organization’s mission.

Bialo: Our Mission: Working to End Furniture Poverty.  As Westchester’s only furniture bank, we collect gently-used furniture and give it a second life by distributing it for free to economically disadvantaged families and individuals in 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 Rye? 

Bialo: Since opening our doors in 2007.

What programming or work in Rye is the organization best known for?

Bialo: We offer free furniture assistance to families and individuals in need referred to us by member social service agencies throughout Westchester County.

Looking forward to 2024, what will be your top initiatives?

Bialo: We will continue to furnish hundreds of families referred to us by our member agencies.  Our biggest challenge is maintaining enough inventory to furnish 8-12 families per week from our small warehouse, so we are planning a spring 2024 County-wide Furniture Drive with multiple drop-off locations sponsored by community partners to raise awareness of furniture poverty and replenish our inventory.

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 homeless shelters into permanent housing
• Women and children escaping domestic violence
• Working families living in extreme poverty
• Veterans struggling with financial hardship
• Young adults aging out of foster care
• Victims of natural disasters
• Newly arrived refugees with no belongings

What they have in common is that they lack the financial means to buy any furnishings, even at thrift store prices. Even when they can secure housing, they may still be sleeping and eating on the floor, and living out of plastic bags.

We work with 45 member social service agencies who refer their clients to us when they need furniture and can’t afford it. Furniture Sharehouse provides each household with beds and dressers, couches, kitchen tables and chairs, armchairs, lamps, rugs, artwork, household items and more. Clients are given the opportunity to hand select their furnishings to suit their tastes and needs with the help of our volunteer Personal Shoppers, and they are always very appreciative of the respect they receive during their “shopping experience”.

Are you a 501(c)(3) non-profit with tax exempt status? 

Bialo: Yes

Looking back across 2023, what were your organization’s top achievements?

Bialo: 

1. Our biggest achievement in 2023 was rescuing huge quantities of furniture and other items from a local hotel/conference center that closed down during the pandemic. We were able to take hundreds of beds, nightstands, lamps, mirrors and artwork, as well as useful household items like ironing boards, irons, alarm clocks, hair dryers, and trash cans for our clients. In addition, we referred our member agencies to the hotel to rescue huge quantities of excellent office furniture, enabling them to upgrade their offices and facilities with quality items at no cost. We found new homes for additional items such as portable cribs for child-care facilities, catering uniforms for hospitality schools and programs, and even holiday décor for non-profits partners. We hate for anything to go to waste!
2. Every year, we have our Mother’s Day Beds For Kids fundraising campaign, which in 2023 raised $25,000 used to purchase new twin beds, bunk bed sets and toddler beds to help get children up off the floor and give them a good night’s sleep.
3. During 2023, we were also thrilled to receive donations of 130 new queen mattresses from Mattress Firm and 45 new small kitchen tables from MillerKnoll to supplement our inventory. They are flying out the door!
4. We held our second Annual Rivertowns Furniture Drive in April 2023, raising awareness of furniture poverty and collecting much-needed inventory.

How can local residents support your organization?

Bialo: 

1. Donate your gently-used furniture TO US instead of those other guys! Other organizations that will pick up your furniture donations are SELLING IT in their resale stores at prices that our clients can’t possibly afford.  We will GIVE your donated furniture FREE to those who need it most!
2. Support us financially with a monetary donation to help cover our cost of warehouse rent and maintenance, furniture pick-ups and other operating expenses. Operationally, it costs us approximately $500 to furnish each family with beds, table and chairs, living room furniture, dressers and nightstands, lamps, mirror, rug, artwork and household/kitchen items – everything they need to fill their empty apartments and rebuild their lives.

What local Rye residents and area businesses have been the longest, steadiest supporters of your organization?

Bialo: We are fortunate to have been supported by Rye Presbyterian Church Women’s Association with grants from their Thrift Shop every year since 2009. We support the Thrift Shop with surplus items from our donations that we cannot use, and every year when they close for the summer, they donate suitable items from their end-of-year inventory.

Local Rye vendors, including Carpet Trends and the recently-closed Nest Inspired, have supported us through the years with in-kind donations from their inventory and sponsorships to our fundraisers.

Tell us about you:

Bialo: I founded Furniture Sharehouse in 2006 and we opened our doors in 2007.

I am a volunteer, and somehow manage to spend part of every day overseeing our operations. With the exception of a half-time Program Manager and our delivery independent contractor, we are all volunteers.  We have a terrific Board of Directors and an incredibly dedicated group of volunteers who work at our warehouse keeping inventory organized, cleaned, and repaired, and serving as “personal shoppers” for our clients.

How would your friends and family describe you in one word?

Bialo: Hard-working 

Pick one:

Bialo: 

MyRye.com Select from:	Your Pick:
Coke or Pepsi?	Coke
Regular or diet?	diet
Action movie or rom com?	action
Cook, order in or eat out?	All of the above
Dog, cat or no pet?	Dog
Balsamic vinaigrette or ranch?	Ranch
Ruffles Original, Lay’s Barbeque or Funyuns?	Doritos
Still, sparkling or tap?	tap

 

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why, and who would you take with you? 

Bialo: France countryside, love the beautifully preserved villages, with my family.

What is your favorite streaming / TV series?

Bialo: Amazing Race

What is your favorite movie?  

Bialo: My Cousin Vinnie

Where do you live?  

Bialo: Larchmont

Thanks, Kate!

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