Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1992-03-05

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NUMBER 10
MARCH 5,1992
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COMMUNITY FEATURE
JFS volunteers deliver «
the furniture, that is
By Nicki Chodnoff
It's no small feat that Jewish Famfly Services routinely
performs. Supplying arriving
New Americans with a basic
furniture set-up of a bedroom
set, dinette set, and sofa and
chairs and household goods
isn't a process that just happens. It's a well orchestrated,
intricate event that gets its
people-power from a host of
committed volunteers who
dedicate both time and resources.
The beginning of the cycle
starts with generous community members who donate no-
longer-needed new or used
furniture to JFS.
As a service to people donating furniture, JFS offers a free
furniture pick-up. This is
where Marilyn Friedman fits
1 into the picture. One day a
week, for the past year, she's
been heading over to the JFS
office to coordinate furniture
pick-up times by contacting
the donating families. Her
most satisfying situation is
when she arranges for New
Americans to pick up furniture directly from the donor.
"This way people can see who
they are helping, where their
furniture is actually going. It's
no longer an anonymous gesture," Friedman said.
Approached by JFS to aid in
the resettlement effort, Friedman gladly accepted the responsibility noting, "It's a
. mitzvah, an important way of
contributing to the (immunity."
Volunteers again come into
the picture when the furniture
is picked up. Through their
companies, the Ungar family's
Functional Furniture and Jay
Schottenstein of Value City
Furniture, donate trucks and
manpower to JFS, transporting furniture from the donor's
home to the warehouse:
People don't donate goods in
the exact combinations that
are needed. So at times there
may be extra sofas or not
enough dinette sets. And because usually more than one
bedroom set is needed per
family, there's usually a
shortfall. To help maintain a
balanced furniture inventory,
JFS has purchased buy-outs.
When the now-defunct Sheraton Hotel was liquidating,
much of their furniture was
purchased for arriving New
Americans. Two floors of furniture from the Hyatt Regency, sold as part of the Hyatt's
top to bottom refurbishment,
also made its way to the warehouse awaiting distribution to
New Americans.
Instrumental in facilitating
these purchases is Frank Nutis. He assisted in the purchases between JFS and Sheraton
and Hyatt representatives, securing the much-needed furniture in such a manner that all
parties came away happy.
His involvement didn't stop
there. He arranged for Value
City trucks to transport the .
furniture to the warehouse
during the Sheraton purchase
and went as far as loading furniture onto the trucks.
Nutis became involved because he believes, "The only
difference between New
Americans and myself is that
my grandfather got on the
boat years ago. If it weren't
for that, I could be one of the
New Americans myself."
That leads to the next link in
the chain, storing furniture.
The family of the late Leon
Schottenstein — Jean, Tom,
Bill and Chaya — have Med
that need for the past yeary
and-a-half. Through their company, Arshot Investments,
warehouse space is donated to
JFS for storing furniture. Additionally, an Arshot employee,
oh company time, opens the
warehouse whenever donated
furniture is brought in or
picked up.
"Needs are so great, and
what our family is doing isn't
much in relation to what need
to be done," said Tom Schottenstein. "We continue to help
because one Jew has a responsibility for another Jew. Anyone and everyone can and
should help. If you put your
mind to it, you can find a way
to be useful"
Geynekh Shvarts and Michael Wei-bond are New
Americans helping New
Americans. Shvarts, assisted
by Weisbond, dispenses stored
furniture to New. Americans
or their anchor families, who
come to the warehouse. The
amount of time they volunteer
depends on how many people
will be arriving in Columbus.
Since both are retired, they
don't mind being "on-call,"
waiting for the go-ahead to
man the warehouse.
Their duties are supposed to
consist of checking the list to
see what furniture is allocated
to a family and if its available.
But Shvarts, age 68, and Weisbond, age 73, go beyond the
call of Volunteer duty. They'll
help people load furniture into
trucks, whenever they can.
"We can't manage sofa sleepers," Weisbond said, "but we
try to help with what we can."
Shvarts and Weisbond want
to help as many families as
they can, in their own way.
' 'When we came to the United
States, JFS helped us," Weisbond said. "Now it's our turn
to help."
Fran Wasserstrom, JFS
vice president and chair of the
Resettlement Committee, has
been instrumental in obtaining household goods from Consolidated Stores through Chuck
Shenk andSchottenstein/Value
City stores through Herb MBn-
kin and Jay Schottenstein. Two
years ago she tackled .the
same assignment. This time
around she was able to receive
enough merchandise to supply
50 New American households.
Since New Americans bring
very little with them when
emigrating, basic items such
as pots and pans, towels,
sheet-, pillows and the like,
are essential to starting a
household.
Wasserstrom compiled a
list of what an average New
American household needs
and gave it to both companies.
see VOLUNTEERS Pg 12
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