SEQUIM — For Marty Hoffman, moving day is a good day — a day to help a family start their lives over.
This 68-year-old retired school principal used to play golf, used to sing in a barbershop group — and he still has lots of friends from the SunLand course and the men’s chorus.
But he gave up those leisure activities because, Hoffman said, he’d rather haul furniture around.
Hoffman, see, is the self-titled, unpaid “Procurement & Transportation Coordinator” for Healthy Families of Clallam County. Over the past four years, he’s volunteered to help women who have survived abuse from their husbands or boyfriends, women who fled households where their lives were in danger.
It starts with a phone call from Healthy Families’ office in Port Angeles: “A woman with a child or two is moving out of the shelter,” he explained. “Normally, they have nothing.”
Most of the women — who have come to either Hope House or Rose House, Healthy Families’ shelters — escaped from their abusive partners with only the clothes on their backs and their children in tow.
So even if they have managed to find an apartment to move into, the survivors may have nothing to sleep on and nothing to cook with.
Hoffman recalls seeing a young woman who had found a new place to live but was sleeping on the floor.
“It broke my heart,” he recalled.
To that woman, and to numerous others over the years, he said: “Give me two minutes.”
He takes a look around the apartment, scanning for gaps. No pots and pans? No microwave? No couch, no bed, no chairs, linens, nor lamp?
Hoffman and his helpers — a crew that’s swelled to 11 men — go next to one of three donated storage spaces in and near Sequim. They pick out the needed furnishings, load them into a donated trailer and bring them to the apartment.
Sometimes, the woman can’t believe her eyes. Her place is turning into a new home, thanks to the gifts of furniture and kitchenware, time and muscle.
Hoffman said he enjoys this job far more than he did those other retirement pastimes.
“These women need a boost, and I have the time and resources and energy to help,” he said. “My mother oftentimes told me to do something good for someone each day and you will feel good. This is so true.”
In the past year, Healthy Families of Clallam County has sheltered 111 families that included 59 children, noted Becca Korby, the agency’s executive director.
“Marty Hoffman and his band of loyal and compassionate helpers furnished homes for 23 families,” she added. “We call Marty ‘the tallest elf in the world.'”
“Giving comes easily,” Hoffman said, “because the recipients are so grateful, the donors are very positive and [Healthy Families] definitely appreciates what we do to help out in this area of great need.”
To potential donors, Hoffman offers this parameter: “Just think about starting over with nothing, and go from there. Kitchen, living room, dining room and bedroom furniture; linens — towels, sheets, blankets, pillows . . . silverware, toasters, sets of dishes, microwave ovens, pots and pans, tables and chairs, dressers, washers and dryers.”
Anyone who’s moving out of, downsizing or upgrading one room or another, Hoffman said, is encouraged to phone Healthy Families at 360-452-3811. The agency will then call him, and he’ll get moving.
And no, he doesn’t worry about the cost of gasoline.
Ask him what’s with that long “Procurement & Transportation” label and Hoffman jokes that as a retired school administrator, he cannot function properly without such a title.
“It beats chief scrounger and delivery boy,” he said.
But “I’m a scrounger; I don’t deny it. I take pride in that.”
He’s also driven to Sea-Tac International Airport to meet a woman and her daughter who had fled an abuser on the other side of the country. Hoffman brought them to Port Angeles, the farthest-away place the young mother could find, and helped her start a new life.
Hoffman hasn’t wanted for help. He has had no trouble finding other volunteers and people eager to give him stuff. They give him good-looking furniture, nearly new kitchen appliances, even gift cards for local supermarkets and discount stores so women can buy food and baby clothes.
“Marty has a knack for uncovering generosity wherever he goes. Being in his presence makes one want to give,” Korby said.
Talk to Hoffman on any given weekday, and he’ll tell you about the trips he’s looking forward to. On a recent morning, he took a mattress and box spring to a Port Angeles apartment, while emphasizing that he usually fills the trailer with a lot more furniture. And on the following Friday, he planned on going to pick up a “really nice entertainment center” for another family.
Healthy Families’ mission, Korby said, is to empower women, children, men and families to live safe and peaceful lives.
Moving furniture, Hoffman said, “is my little piece of that puzzle.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com
