Tile company floors non-profits with gifts

Local
By Bill Walsh
Source: Fauquier Times-Democrat
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16 2008

Not so fast

As do many who support good causes with gifts and money, Tom and Teresa Callaway's assessment of their donation — "The economy has gotten to where you really can't sell these for anything" — is an off-the-cuff and modest dismissal of their philanthropy that seems unsupported by the facts.

We looked on Edmunds.com, which many consider the most credible source of information on car values, and found two 2002 F-350 Ford cargo vans for sale.

These were being offered by private citizens and their's is a retail asking price; the Callaways' T.A.C. Ceramic Tile typically trades its old vans to a dealer when it buys new ones, and thus is looking at wholesale dollars.

Nevertheless, one Internet van was being offered for $6,863, the second for $7,135.

Tile company floors non-profits with gifts

By Bill Walsh

Times-Democrat Staff Writer

The county school system recently launched Web-based "You2Me," which is a wish-list where teachers can post items that they would like donated for classroom use.

Such wish lists work, Martha Toomey said last week; posting her need for a passenger van on the Mary's Family Web site fetched her one van to use, and a second to share.

Marshall residents Tom and Teresa Callaway, owners of T.A.C. Ceramic Tile in Manassas, knew of Mary's Family through the friendship between their daughter and a family friend, Toomey said.

"The economy has gotten to where you really can't sell these for anything," Teresa Callaway said of the used business vehicles, "so we decided that it made more sense to find someone who could use them and give them away."

The Callaways presented Toomey with two Christmas-red 2002 Ford E-350 cargo vans at Thanksgiving.

"I really only needed one," Toomey said, "but I took them both. Assets are assets," she added with a laugh. "I originally thought I could sell one, but then realized it was given to me, so I should give it to someone else."

Orlean-based Mary's Family is a non-profit organization that serves people with disabilities that Toomey founded in 2002. The organization has been asking families who take advantage of its respite days and special camps to bring canned foods for local food banks for quite some time, and the Fauquier Community Action Committee seemed a logical choice with which to share the Callaway's largess. Tom Benjamin, executive director of FCAC took possession of the second van on Wednesday.

"This will be our second van, and will enable us to pick up more donated food," Benjamin said. "Currently, we are picking up about 2,000 pounds of food a day. Having a second van will enable us to pick up another 500 pounds a day. Using Blue Ridge Food Bank figures, that's another $2,000 of food every day."

FCAC moved the Community

Food Bank to a new, larger location on Garrett Street in Warrenton in late August, and soon expanded hours of service from noon to 8 p.m. during the week, and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays.

Taken together, the Community Food Bank and the County Food Bank, operated out of United Methodist Church, served about 4,000 people at Thanksgiving, and November's service numbers doubled October's, Benjamin said.

"There is a constant need to keep picking up food," he noted, "and this van will really help."

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