Making a house more of Home for the Holidays

Monday, Dec. 24, 2001 | 1:12 a.m.

Daniel and Rebecca have at times searched the seat cushions of their worn sofa for loose change to get enough money to fill a prescription for one of their ailing children.

With 5-year-old son Bailey suffering from cerebral palsy, 4-year-old Brandon hampered by a thyroid condition and 3-year-old daughter Adrein recently diagnosed with leukemia, the family needed the old furniture to last quite a bit longer.

That is, until Walker Furniture's eighth annual Home for the Holidays came along. This morning that family and 24 other working poor families will be celebrating the holiday on an average of $3,000 in new furniture, some of it custom-made for the charitable event.

"You see a family like this struggling -- the father and mother in their 20s with such a burden -- and it makes you wonder how they endure," Larry Alterwitz, president and chief executive officer of Walker Furniture, said.

"Not only do they make you feel grateful for what you have, but also you admire and respect them for their strength and courage. It really brings out what Christmas is all about."

Walker Furniture, which has been in business locally for 45 years and has participated in a number of community assistance programs, started Home for the Holidays eight years ago because "furniture is what we do and there was a great need," Alterwitz said.

The program has more than tripled since it provided new furniture for eight families in 1994. This year 1,500 applicants sought the brand-name furniture. So successful is the program that Hillcraft Furniture of Mississippi custom makes 25 sofas and love seats to be donated.

The day before Daniel and Rebecca received their new furniture, they gave their old but usable furniture to another family that had even less.

Such generosity does not surprise neighbor Debi, who nominated them.

"No matter what their financial condition I have never heard the couple complain," she wrote in her nomination letter.

"I have personally watched them gather change up for one of the children's prescriptions ... All of the children still have toddler beds because they cannot afford new ones. (The parents) sleep on a box spring and mattress on the floor."

Last Thursday Walker workers pulled up to the couple's Las Vegas home with a new queen-size bed for the parents and new beds for the children, as well as new living room furniture, dressers and other pieces.

Walker Furniture uses two committees to sift through the stacks of nominations -- a preliminary committee that narrows the finalists to 35 and an executive committee that makes the final choices.

The 18-member executive committee includes Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and Sandra Thompson, vice president of the Las Vegas Sun.

Patti Gerace, marketing director for Walker Furniture, said each year the company gives away furniture valued at more than $150,000, while other retail companies give additional gifts. Sonio's Restaurant donates meals for each recipient, and Quality Christmas Trees donates trees and decorations.

"Daniel and Rebecca said the 2-foot-tall Christmas tree they already had suited them and asked us to give the tree that was to be donated to them to another family in need," Gerace said. "It moves you so much when you constantly see people who are so in need doing things to help others."

Other recipients of Home for the Holidays furniture this year include:

"We look for people in dire need, but we also look for people who are trying to turn their lives around," Alterwitz said. "A gift of good, durable furniture might just be the springboard that changes their lives for the better.

"I would like to see Home for the Holidays just get bigger and bigger and help more and more families every year."