Tearing down to build up hope

“Green Demolitions” funds addiction programs

By SANDY LONG

HONESDALE, PA — In a freshly painted, bright green warehouse on Honesdale’s Brown Street, Steve Daley hustles from customer to kitchen countertop. One woman checks out an assortment of lightly used cabinetry, while the owners of a local restaurant look for bathroom fixtures. Another person nabs a functional filing cabinet for $25. Daley smiles and gestures toward the tons of still-useful items. “All of it was headed for a landfill.”

Daley clearly enjoys his role in this new business, Green Demolitions (GD), which receives donated kitchens, bathrooms, building materials, appliances, lighting and various business surplus and home decor items. GD resells the items at 50 to 75 percent below retail to raise funds for a nonprofit organization based in Hankins, NY that supports alcohol and drug addiction recovery and prevention.

“I’m happy to be part of something that keeps our landfills less crowded, gives people excellent value for their dollar and funds an organization that really makes a difference,” said Daley, who retails the donated merchandise at the Honesdale location.

A second location along Route 97 in Hankins, NY, serves the same purpose and is not far from GD’s main office and another site where the addiction support group holds meetings. “It’s a win-win situation for everyone,” said Steve Feldman, GD’s founder. “The donors get a tax deduction and save dumping costs. The consumer gets heavily discounted merchandise and the environment is spared the impact of additional waste and the outrageous fuel costs associated with moving garbage to landfills.”

Feldman conceived the idea for GD in 2001, after funding for many such non-profits began drying up. Following an 18-year career in radio, Feldman was doing fundraising in Greenwich, CT, when he learned that a 10,000 square-foot elite estate home was to be demolished. He visited the site and found that the house had been leveled and carted off to a landfill. The idea for a green demolition program was born.

The next several years were spent getting the pilot project off the ground. A Greenwich newspaper profiled the young business, which brought 36 responses. Interest continued to grow, leading to GD’s official launch in 2005. In the interim, GD was invited to attend KBIS, the kitchen and bath industry’s major trade show in Chicago, and came home with three tractor-trailer loads of donated products. Donations have continued to come in from various sources ever since.

“We’re discovering that there’s a wide range of products available for donation,” said Feldman. “Commercial surplus, home renovation or demolition, stores going out of business—we’ll consider any inventory we can sell.”

Today, GD receives donations from houses being demolished or renovated in Greenwich and New Canaan, CT, and Scarsdale and Bedford, NY and from individuals and businesses in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Such glowing success hasn’t always been the case for Feldman, who grew up in Poughkeepsie, NY, an academically successful student and a star cross-country runner. A self-described “good kid that went bad overnight,” he began abusing drugs and alcohol, eventually falling into bouts of suicidal depression. Eventually, Feldman received the help he needed and became determined to see that others could have access to the same.

Today, the charity has grown to include an outreach program targeting all addictions (drug, alcohol, tobacco, food, etc.); a meeting and retreat center offering free help for addicts; a Work Ethic Development Program, providing opportunities to recovered addicts and their families to learn to work honestly, responsibly, and accountably in businesses and nonprofit projects; and a youth addiction prevention program providing teens and adults with recreational activities including music, arts, dance, sports and outdoor activities.

The music outreach program has spawned a five-person folk band called Basket Landing, comprised of four children of recovered addicts and one recovered drug addict, ranging in age from 15 to 31. The group is involved in various forms of outreach, including nationwide and regional performances. In 2006, the band was awarded a full scholarship to perform at the North American Folk Alliance conference in Austin, TX and was featured on the internationally broadcast television program, “Teen Kids News.”

Basket Landing will perform on Sunday, October 1 at the Harvest Festival at Bethel Woods, in Bethel, NY, and on November 5 at 2:00 p.m. at the Tusten Theater in Narrowsburg, NY.

Visit basketlanding.com and GreenDemolitions.com for more information. To discuss the possibility of donating items or inventory to GD, contact Feldman at 845/887-5211 or Daley at 570/253-8933.