Goodwill turning clothing, household goods into help
Goodwill donation centers in Florida are hoping to turn what is normally a disaster relief no-no — giving secondhand clothing and household items — into desperately needed aid for victims of Hurricane Michael.
“There are a lot of families, a lot of people, who have lost everything except the clothes they were wearing when the storm hit,” said Karla Radka, chief operating officer of Goodwill Industries of Central Florida. “We have a system in place that lets the victims, in a dignified way, pick out what they need in their style, in their size.”
Launched last year after Hurricane Irma, the charity’s initiative takes clothing, shoes and household goods that donors designate for disaster relief and sorts the items. Those that can be used immediately are sent to Goodwill centers in the affected areas for distribution; the rest is sold at Goodwill stores and the proceeds used for vouchers for the storm’s victims.
In both cases, survivors of the storm’s wrath are able to pick out what they want.
The system avoids what’s called the “disaster after the disaster,” Radka said, referring to the mountain of unsolicited goods that can pile up at relief agencies in a hard-hit region.
“If they’re not equipped to process those donations, it can become overwhelming,” she said. “And then if the items get wet, if they become damaged, they can’t be used.”
Donations tend to pour in, unbidden, to victims of all kinds of tragedy, from wildfires to terrorist attacks. After the 2012 massshooting deaths of 20 grade-school children and six educators in Newtown, Conn., for instance, mourners from across the country sent some 72,000 stuffed animals to the community, presumably to comfort the students.
Instead, the outpouring filled a storage area that covered an acre and a half with pallets of teddy bears reaching 8 feet tall. Community volunteers had to sort and redistribute all but a tiny percentage to other communities.
But certainly the urge to give after a disaster is a noble one, and sometimes financial contributions don’t seem like enough.
“When I saw the pictures of the damage from Hurricane Michael, I felt like there’s got to be something more I can do,” said Laurie Bobletz, an Orlando mother of three who is answering the call to action from Goodwill.
“Yes, you can give money, but these people — their whole lives have changed. They’re starting over with nothing,” she said. “I like the idea of giving something to them more directly.”
Goodwill’s effort after Hurricane Irma in September 2017 — then the costliest storm in Florida history — proved the program works, Radka said. The organization was able to provide $300,000 in vouchers to victims through the state — vouchers that were distributed by the American Red Cross.
“With Hurricane Irma, citizens who contacted the Red Cross to donate goods were referred to Goodwill, and in turn Goodwill provided Red Cross clients with vouchers to shop for the items they need in their stores,” said Rachel Nelson, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross of Central Florida.
Similarly, Goodwill directed anyone wanting to make a financial contribution to the Red Cross.
The two agencies have yet to forge a formal partnership for Hurricane Michael, but representatives from both said it’s still early. So far, over 36,000 Floridians have contacted FEMA for help and information, and the recovery effort is likely to take months, if not years.
“This is an initiative for the long run,” Radka said. “As people here start to prepare for the holidays, we’re asking them to please keep in mind our neighbors in North Florida as they recover from incredible devastation.”
For a list of Goodwill locations in Central Florida, see goodwillcfl.org.
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