ODFR couldn’t operate without its warehouses: when newcomer families arrive with little notice, ODFR & JSS volunteers collaborate, setting up apartments fast with donated furniture and housewares collected from all over Madison and stored in donated warehouse space. Here are five things you might not know about ODFR’s warehouses!
- ODFR has TWO generously-donated warehouses, courtesy of Reynolds Transfer & Storage and Paul Reckwerdt’s The Building Madison on Pennsylvania Avenue. Heartfelt thanks to both!
- Among many other duties, volunteers Jim Hornik and Ken O’Neil pre-assemble donated bunk beds at the warehouse to check for missing slats and hardware. They then break them back down for moving and re-assemble them in the apartments. They call this the “no surprises” method.
- The most needed, too-seldom-donated housewares: toilet paper, toilet cleanser, new pillows, and new mattress pads.
- The least-enjoyable volunteer task: repairing donated vacuum cleaners, including cleaning out dog hair.
- The Donations Team rolls along with humor and esprit de corps and would love your help. Write to volunteers@odfr.org and specify “Donations Team” to get involved!
