Furniture Sharehouse founder Kate Bialo was honored with an award in Dr. King’s name for  exemplifying  his equal rights and opportunity dream at The 24^th Annual Martin Luther King Memorial Service  held at the Larchmont Avenue Church.

The event was sponsored by the Tri-Municipal Human Rights Committee and the Larchmont-Mamaroneck Local Summit.

The Reverend William Crawford—Senior Pastor at the Larchmont Avenue Church—welcomed a full house and reminded the crowd that the evening’s commemoration ceremony was being held in a church basement, similar to the meetings held by King during the civil rights movement.

The theme of the evening “From Selma to Sorrow: The 45^th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Voting March” was derived from the title of a work by key note speaker, Mary Stanton.

Stanton is a historian and journalist specializing in White Civil Rights Activism in Alabama whose works include: Journey Toward Justice; Juliette Hampton Morgan and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and Freedom Walk: Mississippi or Bust.

Stanton has taught at Rutgers University and the University of Idaho and for the past nine years has worked in Mamaroneck as Chief Personnel Officer.

She spoke of Wednesday night’s event as a stern reminder of how much King had accomplished and how much still remains to be done.  Stanton introduced the crowd to the figure of Viola Gregg Liuzzo, the only white woman remembered at the National Civil Rights memorial in Montgomery, Alabama.  Liuzzo, a mother of five, joined King and fought for civil rights and was ultimately gunned down by four members of the Ku Klux Klan, shortly after a voting rights march in Selma, Alabama. She was 39 years old when she died.

After Stanton’s remarks, students of Rye Neck High School spoke briefly of the 1960’s civil rights movement and called attention to civil rights activist Juliette Hampton Morgan—a clear reference to one of Stanton’s books.

Morgan, who came from a privileged background, wrote a series of letters to the Montgomery Advertiser, a local Alabama paper, denouncing the horrible injustices she witnessed on the city’s buses. Soon thereafter, the Rye Neck students entertained the crowd with a reflective tune, which was followed by a performance by the St. Vito’s Church Choir.

The Reverend Richard Allen of the Tri-Municipal Human Rights Committee spoke next. He recalled the 2007 floods that plagued the community, garnering the region national recognition as a disaster area.

It was in 2007 that Kate Bialo launched the Furniture Sharehouse, an organization, “dedicated to the new notion of neighbors being neighbors to each other by sharing quality used furniture with clients who live among us in need." He related how, over the years, clients of Sharehouse have included flood survivors, battered women, working-poor families, young adults aging out of foster care  and victims of home fires.

The Furniture Sharehouse has assisted over 1,000 families with an excess of 15,000 new or “gently used” furniture items since opening in 2007.

Bialo’s dream of opening such a place dated back to 2005 and it took her some time to find a suitable location, secure financing and recruit community members who shared in her vision. Today, Furniture Sharehouse has a 6,500 square foot warehouse on the grounds of the Westchester County Airport with a $90,000 annual budget.

Allen also read from a letter nominating Bialo for the annual award. One paragraph read,“Kate has created an environment where all clients, regardless of their lack of means, family situation or circumstances that require them to need assistance, are greeted with compassion, courtesy and a cup of coffee.”

Allen then presented Bialo with her award noting that, “Kate shares Dr. King’s vision of a world where we all interact with respect for each other, not violence, and where compassion walks with concern in such a way that dignity is never lost, no matter who comes to who in need.”

Bialo accepted the award with a degree of humility as she beamed with smiles.

“This evening’s program has been very inspiring . . . it reminds us of the pivotal role Dr. King played in our nation’s history, of how far we’ve come, and how far we must still go to achieve Dr. King’s dream,” she said.

Bialo said that receiving the award in the Larchmont-Mamaroneck area was especially meaningful to her, as the Furniture Sharehouse gave away its first piece of furniture in Mamaroneck in May of 2007, just after the flooding.

“We are blessed to live in a community where the spirit and vision of Dr. King is alive and well; where volunteerism and service to our less fortunate neighbors is a high priority,” she concluded.

Town Supervisor Valerie O’Keeffe was joined by Larchmont Mayor Josh Mandell and Mamaroneck Mayor Norm Rosenblum in reading a proclamation in honor of Bialo’s commitment to following King’s dream.

 “When I think of when I first heard of Kate trying to put together this Furniture Sharehouse, it struck me as something that was real and tangible,” New York Assemblyman George Latimer said.  “And how many times do we recognize things for effort, for symbolism, for things that really don’t have a tangible nature to it? What Kate has done is absolutely incredible, it really is.”