Together We Cope, the largest social service agency in the southwest suburbs, was forced to close the doors of its client service center, food pantry and resale shop in Tinley Park due to extensive water damage from a leaky roof caused by Monday’s ice storm.
Kathryn Straniero, executive director of Together We Cope, said she was alerted to the problem Monday evening when an ADT motion alarm went off in the building, 17010 Oak Park Ave. Frank Trombley, president of the board of directors, went to the building and noticed that some ceiling tiles had fallen and some water was seeping onto the floor near the rear of the building, and he placed some containers on the floor to catch the water.
But when Trombley returned to the storefront early Tuesday, the leaks had spread, an inch of water was visible throughout much of the building and more ceiling tiles had broken and fallen to the floor, he said.
The building houses the largest food pantry in the area, feeding about 5,000 people a month, according to Together We Cope spokeswoman Marge Seltzner. Dozens of food bags containing oatmeal, tuna, peanut butter, cans of vegetables, pasta and other staples had to be rescued from the rear of the building and were carefully lined up on tables in a dry area.
But Seltzner noted that people arriving at the agency for the monthly food distribution had to be turned away at the door. Signs posted on the front and side entrances read that the building was closed, “Due To Storm Damage.”
Trombley said it was too early to get a cost estimate of the damage, “although the cost to repair the roof alone could be $250,000 or more.” He added that the water leaking from the roof may have damaged drywall, that wet carpeting could create a potential mold problem and that ice and snow on the roof made it impossible for roofers to determine the extent of the damage on Tuesday.
“All the roofers could basically do was clean some of the ice off and create channels for water to drain,” Straniero said. “They cleaned out the gutters, and we’re hoping to have an adjuster come out for an estimate later this (Tuesday) afternoon.”
Straniero said she believed the damage was exacerbated by unrepaired roof damage caused by a previous hail storm. She said Together We Cope had been in extensive negotiations with its insurance company, which had suggested patching a softball-sized hole in a plastic skylight instead of resurfacing the entire roof.
When I inspected the building Tuesday afternoon, large tarps were hung from the ceiling in several locations, channeling water into dozens of tubs on the floor. Trombley said the tubs had overflowed earlier in the day.
He said volunteers who normally work at the resale shop, food pantry or drive trucks immediately pitched in to help as they arrived for work Tuesday. Some just came in when they heard about the problem.
“We had about a dozen volunteers here working their hearts out,” he said. “They bought tarps when we needed more or brought them from home. Someone came in with a wet-dry vac from home when the one we had wasn’t enough. People were moving the food, doing whatever they could, which is what they always do.”
Clients of Together We Cope are given vouchers to purchase clothing free of charge in the NU2U Resale Shop, which also sells about $1,000 worth of clothes each day to patrons who walk in off the streets, Seltzner said.
The Oak Park Avenue building has served as the home for Together We Cope since 2000, when it moved to Tinley Park from Oak Forest. The organization was launched out of the Oak Forest home of Loraine Cook in 1982. Launched as part of a church project to help the needy, Cook soon discovered the need was much greater than she had anticipated and began distributing clothes, food and furniture to people throughout the Southland.
As word of mouth spread about her efforts, people simply began dropping off mattresses, tables, chairs and boxes of food in her driveway. State and county government employees would tell people in need to stop by Cook’s home if they needed help while the government was processing their applications for assistance.
Eventually, her garage and most of her house were devoted to storing donated goods. Cook formed a charitable organization to seek United Way assistance so she could rent space to store her merchandise.
Today, Together We Cope serves thousands of people from 27 communities in Bremen, Orland, Palos and Worth townships. It’s primarily funded by donations, “which means we’re always scratching to get by,” Seltzner said.
When asked how the community could help, Seltzner said financial donations would be the best way because it’s not known if the insurance company will reimburse the organization for the water damage.
“Our main concern is trying to do the best we can for the community we serve,” Trombley said. “That’s what this is all about. The roof is just an inconvenience until we get it resolved. But I doubt we will be able to open (Wednesday) so we have to figure out a way to get the food to the people who need it.
“We may have to move our food panty temporarily to another location, perhaps to another food pantry, and then we have to figure out a way to provide the clothing items to the people who need them if we can’t reopen our doors in a timely fashion. Right now, that’s just unresolved and that’s our top priority. We’re just trying to figure out how quickly we can help the people who need us as fast as possible.”
Straniero said Tuesday was the first time that the doors of Together We Cope had been closed.
“Even in the worst snowstorm, we always managed to stay open because we knew someone would also be coming in off the streets in need of our help,” she said. “Our volunteers always found a way to make it here. They just understood that our clients are people who really need help.”
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Straniero said it appears most of the items in the resale shop were undamaged because most of the leaks seemed to have been in the rear of the building, away from the shop in the front. She also noted that many food items are stored in refrigerators and freezers or packaged in cans.
“We do have many loaves of bread, most of them are bagged in plastic, but we may have lost a lot of those,” she said. “We also have a lot of diapers back there, packaged in plastic, that we’re going to have to move and make sure they remained dry.
“The main concern is trying to figure out how much damage there is to the roof, how quickly it can be fixed and how much water damage the rest of the building actually has. It’s just too early to say right now.”
At least one volunteer told me, “the real problem is that we’ve outgrown our space here. We need a much larger building. More space.”
Straniero told me Together We Cope owns the building, having paid off its mortgage several years ago.
I’ve noted in the past my personal affinity for this organization. My columns about Cook’s early efforts helped her get enough donations to qualify for United Way funding and move the agency out of her home and garage. Her guiding principle, simply to help anybody who said they were in need, was something I had never encountered before or since.
I doubt that Cook would recognize the organization she founded more than 30 years ago.
When I have called on readers in the past to help, they always have. I hope they will do so again. It’s not just about donations but volunteering, whether that means working at the resale shop or simply offering your services as a carpenter, electrician or truck driver.
Cook understood that people facing poverty by themselves feel that there’s no way out. She believed that ordinary people banding together could successfully meet any challenge. They could cope.
And most importantly, she had faith in the average person to pitch in and help their neighbor when the going got tough. That belief resulted in the largest social service agency in the Southland.
That spirit, I am sure, will help Together We Cope rebound from this temporary setback and do what it does best. Just help it.