Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture Helps Local Peabody Fire Station
Peabody, MA, July 17, 2000 — Fire fighters at the South Peabody Fire Station, Engine 5, can now take a break on their new couch, thanks to the Bernie & Phyl’s “Friends In Need” program. The Friends In Need program, which donates furniture to homeless shelters and other charitable organizations across the state, recently gave the fire station its new couch.
“We were in desperate need of a couch. We had one donated three years ago, but as you can imagine, with the wear and tear of three grown men around the clock it was falling apart. We finally had to throw it out,” said Joseph P. DiFranco, Jr., president of the Peabody Local 925. “The town does not buy furniture for us. Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture really saved the day and we truly appreciate their generosity.”
The Friends In Need program recently made several major furniture donations to the Salvation Army, Pine Street Inn, and the Cambridge YWCA Family Shelter Program. The Salvation Army received 125 new Sealy mattresses, valued at over $20,000, to replace all of the old, worn-out beds at the organization’s Harbor Light Center in Boston’s South End. Pine Street Inn, the largest provider of services for homeless and formerly homeless people in New England, was given a truckload of sofas, chairs, tables, and bedroom furniture for their 14 lodging houses. The Cambridge YWCA Family Shelter Program received new living room furniture for the shelter’s family room to replace couches and chairs that were over ten years old and in terrible condition. “We are a family business and we take great pride in how we take care of our customers, our employees, and our community. Through our Friends In Need program, we are able to give back to the communities that have given us so much,” said Bernie Rubin, co-founder and president of Bernie & Phyl’s Furniture. “Fire fighters work hard everyday saving the people and buildings in their communities, and it is our honor to be able to help them.”