Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries of Greensboro, N.C., turned their presence at the sprawling High Point Furniture Market into a goodwill effortâliterallyâby prompting participating vendors to donate furnishings to area families hardest hit by a tornado that ripped through the area last week.
âEverything is by Divine design,â says Hindy Plotkin, who with her husband, Rabbi Yosef Plotkin, co-directors of the Greensboro Chabad center, put the plan into action. âIf Gâd put us in a position to be able to get furniture, we know that we needed to do what we could to alleviate the suffering of others to the best of our Gâd-given abilities,â she tells Chabad.org.
The semi-annual event in nearby High Point, N.C., draws 75,000 vendors from 100 cities around the world. The Plotkins have been operating a pop-up Chabad facility for years, serving the kosher and religious needs of Jewish attendees amid the expoâs 11.5 million square feet of show space since 2012.
Last Sundayâs tornado in the Piedmont Triangle area of North Carolina left devastating destruction and desolation in its wake, blowing the roofs and windows from scores of homes, and leaving furniture and personal effects waterlogged, smashed or blown away. One person died and officials report 1,000 structures suffered some kind of damage in the storm.
Although their own home and Chabad center were spared, many others were not as lucky. Recognizing a need for furniture, they turned to people they knew at the expo and asked them to share new and lightly used furniture that they then loaded into a truck and drove to a local Goodwill outlet, to be delivered to homes in the hardest hit areas of the city.
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