Housewares heaven I
Church repurposes hotel bedding to those in need ‘So many people
By Wendy Healy
t was like dying and going to Bed, Bath & Beyond heaven, said one pastor as she surveyed 2,000 sets
of sheets, 1,500 pillows and truck- loads of household items received and stored by a Pennsylvania church ministry. For more than 15 years, the
New Start ministry of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Glenshaw, Pa., near Pittsburgh, has provided fur- nishings to people leaving shelters and moving into their own places, as well as others in need. Coordinated by Larry Nugent,
New Start collects, stores and redis- tributes furniture, bedding, kitchen supplies and much more. Tis year New Start hit the
jackpot of donations. In January the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in nearby Mars, Pa., contacted the church to say it was redecorating its newly purchased North Points Sheraton. It had four meeting rooms stocked with furnishings to donate. Te only glitch: New Start had to take it all. “Tere is a lot more to the story
on how God made this happen, but the bottom line is that we accepted an enormous donation that ben- efited about 25 organizations in southwestern Pennsylvania,” said Nugent’s wife, Barbara. Larry added, “Tere were down
comforters, 2,000 sheets, 1,500 pillows, shower curtains, gallons of shampoo, plastic trays, ice buckets, trash cans, clock radios. Coffee- makers, hair dryers—just about anything you’d find in a hotel room. It was such a wonderful surprise.”
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www.thelutheran.org
were blessed by this one person’s decision to donate.’
Te Nugents scrambled to find
the resources to receive such a large donation and were able to distribute in about four weeks the goods to 25 community organizations that work with the less fortunate. Within a few days of calling church volunteers, they had the team they needed to pick up, sort and temporarily store the items in 3,000-square-feet of space donated by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod. “To a homeless ministry in
Aliquippa, Pa., we gave some of the bed pads so that people living in tents on the streets had something
Felicia and Nugent look over a list of what the family needed.
ERIKA GIDLEY
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