AAAGA Volunteers Prepare More Furniture Donations for Distribution

While one group of volunteers was sorting donated clothing on Saturday, Jan. 8, more than a dozen other volunteers were organizing donated furniture and household goods. The volunteers pulled donated items out of two storage lockers to identify which goods would be valuable to refugee families and which should be passed along to Goodwill, according to volunteer Jennifer Yamamoto, who was leading the effort.

Among items being purged were unneeded wheelchairs and walkers. “We don’t currently have disabled people," she said.

“If we had a big warehouse to store things, that would be great, but in the storage lockers, we need room for things that are needed right now,” she said. The 30 Afghan families who are being helped by AAAGA “have very small apartments,” often housing a large number of children.

Asked to name things the families need, Yamamoto listed: strollers, car seats, highchairs, rugs, couches, dressers, dining room tables and chairs, pots, pans, glasses, pressure cookers, blankets, sheets that match, comforters, diapers, Maxipads for women.

In addition to purging and organizing the lockers, the volunteers also photographed the items and created a data base, showing what is available. “Now if someone asks for a pressure cooker, we can say ‘yes, we have that,’ and a volunteer can go in and get it,” she said. “It’s organized now.”