On Sunday, February 9, the Asheville Habitat ReStore made the first of fifteen trips to Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort and to pick up five suites of furniture.
The highest grossing casino in the Caesars network, Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort will be replacing existing furniture with new furniture, updating one floor each week. That means 23 rooms of furniture will be donated to the Asheville Habitat ReStore every Sunday for 14 weeks, starting February 23. The donation includes sofas, dressers, bedside tables, desks, chairs, lamps, and granite top coffee tables. All items will be sold in the ReStore, with proceeds used to help Habitat build and repair homes in the community.
Tasked with figuring out what to do with the old furniture, Grounds Property Manager Zeke Cooper quickly thought of Habitat. A ReStore customer himself, he approached ReStore Donation Manager Jay Sloan. The details were quickly worked out and the resort made an initial donation to the ReStore at the end of 2013. Vice President of Human Resources and Community Relations, Jo Blaylock said, “Donations of this size are rare and very important to our community partners in helping them to reach their mission goals. We are thrilled to be able to partner with Habitat for Humanity in support of their mission to transform the lives of people around the world.”
Sloan added, “It’s important for us to always have a showroom full of quality items, and donations like this go a long way to helping us achieve that. We are grateful for Harrah’s incredible generosity and the timing is perfect, as this is typically a slow time of year for residential donations.”