United Way East Ontario’s Community Builder Award

Challenging times call for heroic actions. When the pandemic halted much of life in Canada in March, Helping with Furniture made the difficult decision to stop ordinary operations. But President Nathalie Maione knew what an incredible challenge the lockdown would be to families in empty apartments, so she continued to work tirelessly for weeks on end at the warehouse, all by herself. 

United Way East Ontario recognized this extraordinary contribution this year with a special COVID-19 Heroes edition of its Community Builder Award. “Nathalie Maione's commitment to single-handedly continuing and adapting the vital work of Helping With Furniture—to support low-income and other vulnerable residents in feeling comfortable and safe procuring furnishings for their homes—made her an obvious choice for the Community Builder Award program,” said a representative of the selection committee.

Nathalie developed new strategies to keep everyone safe, and also continue to get those crucial donations to people in need. The entire HWF team is incredibly proud of Nathalie, and grateful to the United Way East Ontario for recognizing her hard work.

As Helping with Furniture continues to adapt our operations to current safety protocols - with a bigger team of volunteers now, we are in dire need of a larger warehouse space. If you would like to support our work, you can learn more and donate to the #Space4HWF campaign!