Industry veteran reaches out to help North Carolina storm victims

ARDEN, N.C. — They say when the going gets tough, the tough get going. 

Industry veteran David Madora took that saying to a whole new level in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, a storm that decimated portions of North Carolina, including the area where he lives and has his furniture store.

After investing more than 40 years as a successful furniture rep for a host of major suppliers including Universal, Stein World, Aspenhome, American of Martinsville and others, Madora entered the world of retail some three and a half years ago when he launched Enza Home Furnishings & Mattress Gallery, a full-line, midpriced, better-quality furniture store here.

Madora’s store sits on a hill with no trees, streams or rivers nearby and was fortunately not damaged by the storm. Even so, Hurricane Helen’s extensive wind and rain caused major damage to the area.

David Madora

“It was terrible,” Madora said. “Trees were falling and crashing left and right and there was just tremendous damage to area homes and cars. Power lines came down; we had no water or electricity or internet,” he recalled.

As soon as the storm passed, Madora immediately called his vendors asking if they could help the scores of displaced residents. “We had to do something. These poor people could not go back to their homes and had no place to go,” he said.

Two of his vendors, bedding supplier Mlilly and GBS Enterprises, a supplier of products and services under the Protect All and Healthy Sleep Brands to the furniture, mattress/bedding and hospitality sectors, stepped up in big way.

“Mlilly donated 1,000 mattresses and GBS/Protect All donated 1,200 sets of sheets and 400 twin mattress encasements,” Madora said.

Madora was thrilled about getting the much-needed donations and reached out to FEMA and the Red Cross to share the good news, but was told by both organizations that they did not have a need for them.

“I was told they had people sleeping on cots for the time being,” Madora said.

Undeterred and anxious to get things moving on a grassroots level, Madora paid for short-term storage to house the donations.

“I reached out to Orange Peel, a music venue located in downtown Asheville, North Carolina, and they agreed to help out and receive the bulk of the donations,” Madora said.

In the meantime, Madora has already arranged to have 300 twin mattresses delivered to  the Western Carolina Rescue Ministry, the Haywood Pathway Center and Homeward Bound.

“People are still scrambling to get their lives back to normal, and we want to do whatever we can to help them make that happen,” Madora said.

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