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STERLING – When people drop clothes, shoes and other goods into the blue and purple bins at various points in the Sauk Valley, they might think their items are being donated to neighbors in need.
That’s what the Lend a Hand Across America organization promised on its bins – until about a week ago, when the signs on the bins changed after Sauk Valley Media began looking into where the donated items go.
Items placed in the bins don’t appear to be going to local people. No local charity contacted by Sauk Valley Media has received anything from Lend a Hand. Many have never heard of the organization.
Just who is Lend a Hand, and where is it located?
That’s not easy to determine.
Where do the items go?
“Lend a Hand Across America supports organizations in your neighborhood that care and clothe the impoverished, needy and those incapable of supporting themselves.”
That’s what plastic signs placed on the bins said until they were removed recently. Now, there is no reference on the bins to Lend a Hand, or to a website that once was listed but can’t be accessed. Now listed on the boxes is the name of a company called Helping Hands, a business with an address in Montgomery, near Aurora.
The boxes had said Helping Hands is a business that owns and maintains the bins.
Blue bins are for donations of clothes and shoes.
Purple bins are for people to drop in books, CDs and DVDs. While they sit next to the blue bins, there is no indication they belong to Lend a Hand. They have a logo that reads, “Reuse books” and a phone number. When you call the number, the outgoing message says, “Thank you for calling Reuse Books.”
SVM contacted some local charities that dispense items to the needy in this area. None – like the United Ways of Whiteside and Lee counties – have received items from Lend a Hand. Rock River Christian Center, which accepts clothing items for the needy, also has received nothing from Lend a Hand.
The same is true at Hope’s Treasures, a thrift store in Sterling that is funded by donations. Employee Maurice Boren does note, however, that most of the people who donate to the store don’t identify themselves.
Leydig Center is a nonprofit thrift store in Dixon that donates its profits to local charitable organizations. Gene Lemme is chairman.
“I’m totally unaware of it,” Lemme said of Lend a Hand.
Both the Rock Falls and Sterling police departments said they had received no complaints about the bins. Since they all are on private property, no permits with the cities are needed.
Lend a Hand staff elusive
Jim Schuneman, owner of Zuppa’s Deli in Rock Falls, has been paid about $100 a month to have the Lend A Hand bins in his parking lot.
But Schuneman grew tired of having them on his property.
“The lot is so small, we don’t have room for that stuff,” he said. “I had to push snow right up to it. Then nobody could get to it.”
So Schuneman tried to get the bins removed.
“You can’t get ahold of them,” he said. “Finally, someone starts returning the calls. Finally got a name out of him and was able to leave messages for him. That was a problem.”
“Something’s not right,” Schuneman said.
On Independence Day, the blue bin for clothes and shoes was removed from Zuppa’s’ lot. The purple bin for books, CDs and DVDs remains, leaving Schuneman frustrated.
“They [the boxes] came on the same day. They came together,” he said. “We might just turn [the remaining bin] into a smoker.”
The man Schuneman contacted was Frank McDonald, who identifies himself as sales manager for We Care Recycling. That’s a business based in Aurora that, McDonald says, helps Lend a Hand.
“How did you get this number?” McDonald asked when contacted by Sauk Valley Media.
He asked that all questions about Lend a Hand be submitted by email, a tack he’s also taken with reporters from suburban news organizations.
“The reason I hate talking to the media is because you put a negative spin on recycling,” McDonald told SVM.
McDonald has not replied to an email sent by Sauk Valley Media.
According to federal 990 forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service, Lend a Hand Across America is a nonprofit organization. Calls to a phone number listed on the forms went unanswered.
So, too, did calls to two numbers listed on the bins. Messages left at both numbers have not been returned.
The Better Business Bureau of Rockford, which serves the Sauk Valley, has several “Helping Hands” businesses on file, but no records of a Helping Hands business that maintains bins for donation.
Frank McDonald said he had no contact information for Lend a Hand. The 990 forms list Karen McDonald, with a Bartlett address, as secretary.
DuPage County Chief Deputy Clerk Paul Hinds said the county has a marriage license on file from 1984 for Frank McDonald and Karen Teague. The county also has an address of 988 Hyacinth Lane in Bartlett for a Frank and Karen McDonald.
The Hyacinth Lane address is listed with the Better Business Bureau there as the location of Lend a Hand.
No one answered at that address when a reporter knocked, but two large dogs came to the front door. The curtains and blinds were drawn.
There is a second documented Bartlett address for Lend a Hand, 711 Evergreen Lane, which is listed on the organization’s 990 forms. It also is listed as the home address of Lumni Toska, the group’s president, and Mixharet Toska, the treasurer.
There, too, the blinds were drawn and no one came to the door. The address numbers had been removed from the house and mailbox. A car registered to Lumni Toska was parked in the street in front of the house.
How does Lend a Hand operate?
According to its 990 forms, all of Lend a Hands revenue comes from We Care Recycling. In 2010, We Care paid $9,503 to Lend a Hand.
Also according to the 990 forms, the only money Lend a Hand spends outside of its own group is to a Chicago organization called Feed, Clothe and Help the Needy. It gave $4,500 in 2009 and $5,500 in 2010.
The Toskas and Karen McDonald each receive an annual salary of $1, according to the forms. Lend a Hand spend $2,706 in operating and administrative expenses in 2010 and $2,453 in state, local and federal taxes, according to the 990s.
Betty Price, founder of Feed, Clothe and Help the Needy, confirmed she receives money from Lend a Hand.
“They give me clothes, too, and other things,” Price said.
She said she had no contact information for Lend a Hand, but said, “When you reach them, tell them I need more money.”
When Price was contacted a second time by SVM, she would not say how much she receives from Lend a Hand, calling it her “personal business,” then hung up.
We Care Recycling is as difficult to locate as Lend a Hand and Helping Hands.
Its address is listed on a 2010 IRS document as 850 Ridgeway Ave. in Aurora. That building houses three businesses – The Granite & Marble Depot, Mana Metals, and DuPage Pallet.
Tarek Merhebi, who identified himself as the owner of The Granite and Marble Depot, said his business had been there for 8 years and he had never heard of We Care Recycling.
Kemal Akman, who identified himself as the owner of DuPage Pallet and Mana Metals, said his companies are new and that the offices were vacant for a long time before he moved in.
Another address online for We Care Recycling is 1001 Aucutt Road in Montgomery, about 5 minutes from the Aurora addresses. The building houses Midwest Siding Supply. Yet another address that can be found online for We Care, 580 Ridgeway in Aurora, is not a valid address, according to a city of Aurora customer relations specialist.
An organization called We Care Recycling is based in Carlinville, but an employee there said his company is not associated with We Care Recycling in Aurora. It does, he said, get phone messages for the Aurora company – often from bill collectors.
Frank McDonald does have at least one other business affiliation – in a Better Business Bureau report in June, he is listed as owner of Gadget Gobbler, an electronics waste management and e-waste service.
Gadget Gobbler has a website, www.gadgetgobbler.com, which lists the company's address as 2112 W. Galena Road, Aurora. That address does not exist, according to Aurora's customer relations specialist.
Goodwill: Bins 'taking donations from us'
STERLING – The Goodwill store in Sterling is flanked by Lend a Hand Across America donation boxes: in the parking lot of the BP gas station to the east and in the parking lot of Express Care to the west.
Jaclyn Wooden, Goodwill's store manager, said the boxes have presented a problem for the Goodwill Store, which also accepts donations of clothes.
She hasn't necessarily seen a drop in donations to her store, but Wooden noted that Goodwill serves Sterling and Rock Falls, while it is unclear whether Lend a Hand does anything to benefit the Twin Cities or the Sauk Valley.
"It's hard to have the boxes close to us," she said. "They're taking donations from us, and we're giving back to the community."
Goodwill has an "attire for hire" program that gives two outfits to people who need clothes for job interviews. It donates stuffed toys to Happy Tails Animal Shelter in Rock Falls, and lets local residents use its community room free of charge for any reason, Wooden said.