“You can’t feel good about yourself if you’re sleeping on the floor and have nothing in your home,” Joelene Lemke says.

She shuffles around her office at Northwest Furniture Bank coordinating schedules and shipments of merchandise that will soon fill the homes of people who have nothing. She hopes this contribution will give them hope to begin rebuilding their lives.

“There’s such a myriad of life experiences that come through here,” she said.

Joelene, her husband Bill, and their son, Brian, were inspired to launch Northwest Furniture Bank after taking a 2005 church-sponsored mission trip to San Francisco. Standing in the city’s food bank Bill thought, “Why can’t we do this with furniture?” And just like that, the seed was planted in the Lemkes’ minds to grow a furniture bank for people in Pierce County.

Bill Lemke, who already had decades of experience working in the local furniture industry, understood that most of the furniture sold in America is manufactured offshore. Sometimes that merchandise gets damaged or the boxes get dented when they are shipped across the ocean in containers.

“If anything happens when it’s in transit, companies really don’t have the option of sending it back,” Joelene explained. “More often than not, they crush it and throw it in the landfill.”

The Lemkes made plans to save as much of this furniture as they could for their bank. However, in October 2005 their son Brian was diagnosed with cancer. He passed away five weeks later.

“It was a really quick, stunning portion of our lives,” Joelene said. “The furniture bank went to the back of our minds.”

Shortly after their son’s death, the Lemkes discovered a few friends at the Old Cannery Furniture store in Sumner had raised money to help pay for Brian’s medical expenses. Because Brian passed away suddenly, most of his medical expenses were covered by the family’s insurance, so Bill and Joelene decided they would use the money to honor their son’s memory and start their furniture bank for families in Pierce County.

After researching the idea, the Lemkes discovered that furniture banks were not a novel idea. There were banks across the country just like the one they hoped to start. The Lemkes visited a few of the banks to get inspiration and ideas they could implement in Pierce County.

“We were just blown away by seeing Bill’s vision in reality,” Joelene said of the Bridges Furniture Bank in Minneapolis.

When the Lemkes made the commitment to open their bank in September 2007, they were met with an outpouring of community support and resources. From discovering a manual on how to open a furniture bank to donated warehouse space and trucks, the Lemkes began building the strong foundation that would eventually allow them to assist the needs of more than 70 families just last month - a record-breaking number for the organization.

Today the bank serves as a source of furniture for people in need across Pierce County. They collect and warehouse furniture for qualified member agencies. The furniture is made available to clients of caseworkers, which include victims of domestic abuse, people suffering loss from fire and natural disasters, foster homes and especially families coming from transitional housing who are trying to rebuild their lives.

In its first year, Northwest Furniture Bank was called upon to help provide assistance to victims of the December 2007 flooding in Chehalis. The organization managed to collect and donate five semi-truck loads of merchandise to affected families.

Last April the bank moved to its current location on Bay Street in Tacoma.

Bill continues to work part-time in the furniture business and Joelene works at the bank full-time.

Northwest Furniture Bank is open to those in need Tuesday through Saturday and for appointments with clients Thursday through Saturday. Clients must be referred to the bank through an agency. The bank works with about 90 agencies in Pierce County to connect clients with the bank’s resources. Clients can only participate in the program once, so caseworkers work with them to assess items they may need for their home.

“We’re not here to replace stuff they already have,” Joelene said. “If they are sleeping on the floor and have nothing, that’s what we’re here for.”

Clients are charged a $50 processing fee, which allows them to choose what pieces they need and what style would work best in their home. Although some pieces may not always be available - currently, the bank is short on dining tables and bookshelves - Joelene guarantees that everyone will leave with a bed.

“We want to help people rebuild their lives,” Joelene said. “We want to give people hope, we want to do it with dignity, and we want to give them some stability in their lives.”