Atlanta Furniture Bank robbed, donations needed
The Metro Atlanta Furniture Bank, a small, non-profit organization
that provides furniture to HIV-positive people who are over-coming
homelessness, was burglarized on April 12. More than $9,000 worth of
office furniture and computer equipment was stolen. The situation is
further complicated by the fact that theft insurance was unavailable
because the Furniture Bank is in a high-crime location.
Tom Polk, executive director of the Furniture Bank, has made a
public appeal for funds to replace the equipment. He said it will cost
roughly $15,000 to fully recover the losses because some of the
equipment was on lease purchase.
Since its first full year in 1989, the Furniture Bank has assisted
nearly 15,000 formerly homeless people in re-establishing their lives.
The organization serves some 3,000 people annually, providing donated
furniture to help with clients’ transition from the streets to a home
environment. Polk stresses that the small size of the organization
forces staffers to rely on computers, copiers and other equipment as
labor savers.
He added the burglary came at a particularly bad time, because the
bank had to lay off three of its eight staff members due to a funding
shortage. "Now more than ever, we need the equipment that allows a few
people to do the work of many," Polk said in a letter appealing for
donations.
In that letter, the group’s first direct appeal for funds, Polk
emphasized that no other organization shares the Furniture Banks’s
mission and its services would no be taken up by any existing group.
Since the letter, Polk said the bank has received contributions of
@1,000, but the organization still owes at least $6,000 to $7,000 to its
creditors. Once that money is repaid, Polk said there is still another
$8,000 worth of equipment needed.
Polk says a tax-deductible donation of either money or a working
copier, typewriter, fax machine and microwave would still be greatly
appreciated.
To donate, mail a check to The Metro Atlanta Furniture Bank, 538
Permalume Place, Atlanta, GA 30318. Or call 404-355-8530.
***Rick*** aka Lagnaf
____________________________________
Richard.Pe…@lightspeed.com | |
| Hate is not a family value |
BUSH LOST | |
GET OVER IT |__________________________________|
—
* OLXWin 1.00 * All hope abandon, ye who enter messages here.