CHARITY: Punished for desire to share

Recently I lost my job thanks to the Obama Recession, and then my home. I’m now unemployed and living with a friend until I find another job and can afford a place of my own again.

I worked hard to sell any furniture that I could live without, for the time being, along with many clothes, household items, tools, etc. Then, I called one of the local charity organizations that has a store to sell donated items from to come pick up my donations. Please keep in mind that if I could have afforded storage units, I wouldn’t have had to sell all of my furniture.

Among my donations were two rocking chairs, with two matching foot stools, one bed frame, one entertainment center, two mattresses, one air conditioner, two end tables, one couch. All were in reasonably good condition.

In our current recession circumstances, with so many folks having lost their jobs, I’m sure somebody could have used those items. The charity workers just picked through all the items, took the best items (in their opinion) and told me that they couldn’t take the rest because, if they didn’t sell, their charity would have to pay a huge garbage bill to get rid of them.

I’ve heard this same story from others who wanted to donate items to the local charities. The only item that I was given an excuse for not taking was the entertainment center which was made of wood. The excuse was that one of the shelves was slightly “bowed.” Come on, now! People with nothing to do to fill their time while looking for a  job could have fixed that problem! That slight bow certainly didn’t keep me from using it. And, I’m sure we’ve all known, or at least heard, of people who work at the garbage dump take various pieces of furniture and many other things home from their job at the end of the day. I know one young divorced woman whose dad brought a table and chairs home for her.

There are two possible solutions for this matter.

1. The city and county could be more reasonable with their garbage and dump rates, at least for these charities. These are charities who are supporting rooms and apartments for the homeless, and selling good used clothing, household items, etc., which benefits the folks who can’t always afford new ones.

2. The charity, in this case, could have set these good condition furniture items out in their parking lot with a big “free” sign on them, and I’d lay good odds that they would have disappeared within a day or two.

I very recently read that the employees of Waste Management earn a lot of money. Sounds to me like our city and county need to get garbage men (and women?) who work for a reasonable price.

I will never offer to donate anything else to the local charities. lnstead, I’ll put a sign in my own yard that says, FREE! TAKE WHAT YOU WANT!

MONICA CARLISLE

Coeur d’Alene