Are you exhibiting at Coverings this year? Great! Are you planning to take everything back home with you? If not, please consider donating your excess product to Tile Partners for Humanity (TPFH) – the Coverings nonprofit partners would truly appreciate it!
Have you wondered how the donated materials are used? TPFH is a national partner of Habitat for Humanity, so materials are either used in homes or resold to generate funding for new construction. TPFH also partners with community outreach centers around the country that distribute materials to families and organizations in need.
Last year, River Valley Community Outreach Center in Gridley, CA, used materials to refurbish the bathrooms of two local widows in need with local volunteers contributing labor. They also used granite, marble, tile, thinset mortar, and other materials to further the mission of Twin Cities Rescue Mission and Feather River Men’s Center in the Sacramento area.
In Gassaway, WV, Central West Virginia Outreach Center shared materials both with individual families and other community organizations. One local family collected pieces of granite and marble in varying colors, shapes and sizes over several years and crafted an incredibly unique floor for their home. And they did all of the installation work on their own!
And yes, this is the same donation program that Coverings exhibitors, in partnership with Coverings and Freeman, have supported in the past. This will be the TWELTH year that TPFH has benefited from the generosity of Coverings exhibitors. In that time, we’ve collected DOZENS of trucks of tile, marble, granite, installation materials, tools, backerboard, cleaners, and sealers. Your donations have supported Habitat for Humanity partners in Orlando, Chicago, Atlanta, and Las Vegas as well as other community improvement organizations in North Carolina, West Virginia, Florida, Indiana and California. This year, we hope to reach even more partners!
So how do you donate? Easy! E-mail Ally Venugopal at [email protected] or Herb Miller at [email protected] and let us know that you’d like to donate. We’ll ask you to let us know what you think you may have and where your booth will be on the show floor. You can let us know if your material will be available before the show opens or after it closes so we know when to collect it. Our volunteers will be on site before, during and after the show wearing Tile Partners for Humanity donation t-shirts and will tag and label all of the pieces you wish to donate. Freeman has generously offered to remove all donated items from the show floor AT NO COST to exhibitors. If you need for us to organize or stack materials after the show, we can do that. We also ask that if you ship large pieces or slabs that you consider donating the packing crates used to get them to the show. If you don’t need them for other pieces, we’d truly appreciate them for transportation to our partners!
TPFH is the partnership of tile industry members that collectively support Habitat for Humanity and other nonprofit partners through donations of tile, installation materials, tools, and labor. Since 2003, the industry has contributed in excess of $35 million in materials and labor to Habitat for Humanity and other nonprofit partners. In 2011, TPFH merged with Mountain Re-Source Center, a nonprofit that takes in large donations of ALL types of building materials and distributes them to nonprofit partners around the country. Through the merger, the tile industry will be able to serve an even greater number of families and organizations in need.
Please also visit us on Facebook – we have pages for both Tile Partners for Humanity and Mountain Re-Source Center. Feel free to let us know there that you’ll be able to donate!
On behalf of Tile Partners for Humanity, Mountain Re-Source Center, and all of our partners, we thank you.