Salvation Army or Convenience Army

Good grief, what is today’s world coming to? I received a phone call not too long ago regarding my estranged mother. It seems she was trying to donate a couch to the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army, in their infinite wisdom, refused to accept the perfectly usable couch.

Granted, the couch has seen better days. It could use some new slipcovers, but it does have redeeming qualities. It is a sofa-bed. It opens up into a ¾-size mattress that is very comfortable to sleep on, and has storage underneath.

Yet, the Salvation Army crew that came to retrieve the couch said they could not take the couch. Why, you ask? For one reason and one reason only, the couch was down stairs.

What did I just hear? The Salvation Army doesn’t take donations if the furniture isn’t on ground level? What is the sense in that? Yes, I can understand they are understaffed, and are a non-profit organization who works on volunteers, but refusing a donation based on the location of the furniture?

My mother is 72 years old, has cancer, and can barely climb up and down stairs herself. Yet in the tiny recesses of her twisted heart, there seems there is some good left, and she called to donate a piece of furniture to an organization that is SUPPOSED to donate furniture to the needy. Another family sleeps on the floor, thanks to Salvation Army’s thoughtless, selfishness, and outright greed.

I can understand why Salvation Army doesn’t want to be carting up furniture for able bodied citizens, but Senior Citizens trying to do something good in the community? Something is very very wrong at Salvation Army!

Tomorrow, my 74 year old father, and my able bodied brother are going to try to drag that couch up the stairs, so the Salvation Army can come back again. If my father suffers a heart attack while trying to drag that couch up those stairs, I wonder, if my mother has a valid lawsuit.

It makes me wonder why people even bother trying to turn a good deed, when they are slapped on the wrist for it.
Just my thoughts