Page 11 - Goodwill of the Finger Lakes Annual Report

Embrace Collaboration:
E Soon after our ribbon
Canandaigua and Our Good Neighbor Program

cutting at our Canandaigua
Store, Ontario County was
hit by a 100-year-storm
that triggered catastrophic
flooding in Canandaigua.
John [JT] Squires, our
Community Navigator for Canandaigua's Good Neighbor Hub,
took part in Goodwill’s emergency response, working alongside
colleagues like Dawn Martinez, the Canandaigua Goodwill
Store Team Leader, to meet the city’s urgent needs. JT recalls helping a single mother of
several small children who had moved the day before the flood, meaning that everything
the family owned was in cardboard boxes on the floor of their new apartment. Having been
evacuated, the family returned home to find all of their possessions destroyed. Through
the Good Neighbor Program, JT provided the family with wardrobes, games, and toys. He
used community connections to ensure the mother and children had meals and financial
support until they were back in a stable situation. He describes how gratified he was when
she returned to Goodwill two weeks after the flood with her youngest child to thank him.

In responding to the Canandaigua flood, JT and his colleagues at Goodwill benefited from
the teamwork made possible through the Partnership for Ontario County, which organized
several community-based organizations to work alongside the Good Neighbor Program.
Shortly after the flooding another storm threatened the region, and Goodwill joined the
massive effort to deliver and set up sandbags to protect homes in the most vulnerable
areas. One year after the floods, a tornado moved through Canandaigua, uprooting trees and
damaging homes and utility poles. As climate change brings increasingly severe weather to
the region, JT and others in the Good Neighbor Program expect to be increasingly called
upon to help their neighbors prepare and recover.

Deborah Turner | Director of Crisis and Referral Services: In collaboration with our Good
Neighbor Program, 211/LIFE LINE took the lead in screening over 100 households to get
connected to both immediate and long term recovery resources.

JT Squires He/Him | Community Navigator for Goodwill’s Good Neighbor Program:
Husband and wife team, Darryl and Marion Gill, originally came to Good Neighbor from the
A4TD program and have since retired from that program. They now volunteer on their free
time several days each week. They are well-known to our regular shoppers, case managers,
and store associates. You can find the Gills assisting in filling orders, chatting with shoppers,
and offering a friendly smile. We are very lucky to have them!