A Colarusso & Son, Inc. is hiring

Refurnishings: A new beginning

0
Share

Staff report

The ribbon is cut on Refurnishings Second Hand Store, ushering in a new era for Justice For Orphans. Photo courtesy of Jordon Egleston

RAVENA — There is a national foster care crisis in the U.S., with a reported 391,000 kids in the foster care system but only 208,823 licensed foster homes, according to The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS)

Here in Coeymans, the founders of Justice For Orphans ( JFO) are trying to do what they can to fill that gap.  

In 2012, founders Sandra Flach and Mary Slager, both adoptive and foster moms, saw the crisis but also saw a huge church population in this country that could be activated to help. 

On a mission to rally the church, the duo jumped into advocacy work and began hosting annual adoption and foster care conferences. They launched and hosted the Orphans No More weekly radio program on WDCD in Albany, in 2014. They say that by 2018, the show became a podcast to encourage, educate and equip those who care for children through adoption, foster care and kinship care. Today, the podcast, has a new name — The Adoption & Foster Care Journey — and is heard by tens of thousands of listeners worldwide.  

By 2018, their idea to activate the church was coming together and CarePortal was born.  According to their website, CarePortal is a technology tool equipping churches, child welfare agencies, businesses and individuals to engage and take action by meeting the tangible needs of families in their own communities.

JFO manages the CarePortal in Albany, Greene, Rensselaer and Schenectady counties, and they are continuing their work of adding additional counties all the time. Since 2018, more than 3,000 local children have been served through the CarePortal network. And now local residents can do more to support CarePortal.

A NEW BEGINNING

Last Thursday, JFO began a new venture in support of their project, a resale shop located at 2484 Route 9W in Ravena, dubbed Refurnishings. 

As the clock neared 10 a.m. the parking lot of the old Blessingdales furniture store began to fill up and enthusiastic supporters of the group filed in. Pete Bardunias, senior vice president of Community Advancement for the Capital Region Chamber of Commerce, and Marlene McTigue, board chairperson for the RCS Community Business Association, had come to cut the ribbon for the new venture.  

“At the business association, we are dedicated to doing everything we can to support this worthy member organization,” McTigue said. “We know the foster care crisis in this country is real and that children’s lives are being positively impacted by the work being done here. We wish Sandra and her colleagues great success with Refurnishings.” 

As attendees entered they saw that the space had been filled up with furniture and other household items.

“Over the past five years, as we’ve been meeting tangible needs for foster families, things like beds, dressers, kitchen tables, chairs, people in the community would all the time reach out wanting to donate those items to Justice For Orphans,” said Flach, the organization’s executive director. “We didn’t have a place to store those items, the churches we work with didn’t have a place to store those items, so it was often a loss. We could have had these items for families, but we just couldn’t take them.”

“We felt like if we ever had a place, we could have a store where we could sell them to the public, create that funding stream for JFO as well as provide the furniture for the families for CarePortal,” she added. “When this place became available, we felt like this was the perfect spot. And then everything started falling into place, people came to us, saying they would like to volunteer. It was a big step of faith because we had no cash reserves starting this project. We are so excited to be here and we want it to be an exciting place in our community. We don’t want it to be, ‘come to our junk.’ We’ve set it up like a boutique.”  

Christina Ross, of New Baltimore, at the Refurnishings Second Hand Store on Thursday. Ross said she is a lover of vintage decor and is already eyeing some purchases for her home. Photo courtesy of Jordon Egleston

Christina Ross, of New Baltimore, agrees. She came to the ribbon cutting to support the organization. 

“I love the way that it is set up so you can actually visualize a living room,” Ross said. “I came today because I thought that this was such a great opportunity for our community to give back. Blessingdales was such a great organization and a great way for us to give back, so when I saw this place being advertised in Facebook, I thought, I’d better get down there.”

If you would like to check out what’s in stock at Refurnishings, the store will be open Thursday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Related Posts