by Rena Satre Meloy, Communications Director & Desmond Fuller, Social Media Coordinator

Every fall, Community Warehouse hosts its annual HomeMaker drive, encouraging community members to become monthly contributors to their local furniture bank.

This year, we decided to swing for the fences and incorporate a Pillow Drive. Pillows are one of Community Warehouse’s most needed items and are a hard donation to come by, especially in good condition.

We were thrilled to watch as the pillow drive, which began as a pilot project, evolved into a flowering success!

People and organizations across Portland came out of the woodwork to help us fulfill and surpass our goal of gathering 1,000 pillows. All in all, we collected 1,526 pillows (and they’re still trickling in). From the local businesses, faith communities, and Girl Scouts who hosted pillow drives, to community associations, newspapers and radio stations who all helped spread awareness – this was a team effort through and through.

Community Warehouse board members personally went out shopping for pillows. Coffee Creek Quilters hand stitched 150+ beautiful pillowcases. Our fantastic pillow partners Mattress Lot and Malouf matched pillow donations from the community.  Donors arrived at our drop-off centers, their cars stuffed to the brim with pillows. And on the final day of the drive, our Uber PNW partnership really brought it all home, with Uber drivers who dashed across Portland to pick up pillows and deliver them to our Warehouse. How cool is that?

The success of this pillow drive not only delivered an invaluable influx of pillows that we can redistribute to those in need throughout the holidays, but also helped promote our HomeMaker Drive to raise awareness about our need for sustaining supporters, and what it means to give monthly to your local furniture bank.

We knew our goal of 125 HomeMakers was ambitious, and while we didn’t quite make the mark, we ended up with 22 new HomeMakers in just one month, arriving at a final count of 102 monthly donors – which is huge! We could not be more proud of our supporters who helped drum up this big support. Though the drive is officially wrapped, the opportunity to sign up as a Homemaker is open to donors year round. As we roll into the holidays and the chilly winter sets in, there’s never been a better time to lend your sustaining support to families in need. Think of a dining table, or dishes for Thanksgiving dinner, warm beds and blankets for cold nights, and yes, soft pillows to rest one’s head on, and dream.

High Fives To Our Pillow Drive Hosts

Harris WorkSystems
Grady Britton
Boly:Welch
First United Methodist Church
Q Center
Lake Oswego Rotary
Irvine and Company
Providence St Vincent Medical Center
Smyrna United Church of Christ
Sabin Girl Scout Troop 45157