Volunteers this week mobilized to accept donations of housewares from a major trade show at Chicago’s McCormick Place Convention Center.
Tinley Park-based Together We Cope and Alsip-based Sertoma Centre are among five organizations that benefit from goods donated by vendors from The Inspired Home Show, presented by the International Housewares Association.
The pandemic forced organizers to cancel shows in 2020 and 2021. The event returned last year at about half capacity as operations began to resume after the pandemic, said Leana Salamah, a vice president with the housewares association.
“This show felt a lot more complete,” she said. “A lot more people were able to participate and help us get back to full strength.”
The show opened Saturday and wrapped at 3 p.m. Tuesday, when an army of volunteers flooded the floor of North America’s largest convention center and began packing and removing donated items.
More Top Picks Best Tinted Glasses For Photophobia
“They go from booth to booth,” Salamah said. “They accept the product, they pack it all up, they wrap it. It’s a lot of work.”
This year’s trade show featured about 1,600 exhibitors from 120 countries and drew about 30,000 visitors, she said. It was the annual event’s largest turnout since 2019, when donated items helped raise about $100,000 for Sertoma Centre.
Sertoma Centre, 4343 W. 123rd St., Alsip, supports people with disabilities by offering life skills training, employment and a wide range of mental health services. Organizations may give donated goods to people they serve or resell them and use the proceeds to benefit their missions.
“A lot of these nonprofits have their own resale shops where they will actually sell the products to the public,” Salamah said.
Together We Cope operates a thrift store and food pantry at 17010 Oak Park Ave., Tinley Park. The thrift store has been closed since a November fire damaged the facility but is expected to reopen soon.
Together We Cope offers food, shelter, clothing and referrals for people temporarily experiencing homelessness and helps them regain self-sufficiency. The organization recently said in a social media post that 65 volunteers were needed to work from about noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday to transport donated items.
“This extraordinary opportunity allows Together We Cope to provide items to our families in crisis,” the organization said. “Hundreds of additional products will be sold in our resale shop.”
Efforts to reach representatives of both organizations for comment Wednesday were unsuccessful. Automated replies indicated personnel were busy handling the donated items.
The housewares market accounts for about $30 billion in U.S. sales annually and nearly $100 billion worldwide. The Inspired Home Show attracts International Housewares Association members who are retailers and manufacturers of products. The event is not open to the general public.
“This is where they come in the first quarter of every year to identify and source products that they’re going to stock and sell to consumers for the whole rest of the year,” Salamah said. “These products will start to show up on shelves in the summer, the fall and all the way through the holiday season.”
Vendors from all over the world display wares at hundreds of booths. Products are often shipped well in advance of the show. It could be impractical for vendors to take products home with them, so businesses developed relationships with local charities to accept items as donations.
“The industry overall is very charitable and wants to give back,” Salamah said. “This stuff is heavy and it can be expensive to ship it back.”
Merchandise includes kitchen gadgets, copper pots, furnishings and decorations.
In addition to Sertoma Centre and Together We Cope, three other organizations that benefit from home show donations are The Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity Restore Chicago and Plainfield-based K9’s for Veterans, an organization that provides service dogs to help military veterans affected by post-traumatic stress syndrome.
This year a K9’s For Veterans client was among about 300 volunteers who helped with Tuesday’s effort to move donated goods, Salamah said.
“A lot of folks who find their lives improved by the activities of these organizations then come back in and volunteer for them in order to kind of pay it forward and help other people,” she said.
Ted Slowik is a columnist for the Daily Southtown.