Movers for moms: Local moving company joins national effort to collect donations for family shelters

ORLANDO, Fla. — Just in time for Mother’s day, a local company is joining a nationwide effort to help moms in need of additional support.

The community-based program, “Movers for Moms”  seeks to “make life easier for less fortunate women forced to stay in shelters on Mother’s Day.”

Jonathan Crane owns three “Two Men and a Truck” franchises in Central Florida. They’ve been involved in the Movers for Moms effort since 2007.

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“It’s pretty unimaginable to most of us to be in a shelter at all,” Crane says. “To be in a battered, abused, women’s shelter on Mother’s Day is a very hard thing, and anything that any of us can do to help people get back on their feet and be in a better situation...I think all of us want to do.”

With that in mind, Two Men and a Truck locations all across the country got to work collecting donations and delivering them to women escaping abusive homes at shelters like the Harbor House of Central Florida, and Help Now of Osceola.

Over the last few weeks, they’ve delivered boxes to businesses all over Central Florida. Once the boxes are filled with donations, they go back and pick them up.

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Since the pandemic, Crane says getting donations has been more difficult, so they’ve also set up an amazon wish-list to make things easier.

“They took a big hit as far as donations go,” Crane says. “Domestic violence went up, so I think it’s important to let the community know, and then be aware of that, and try to find as much help as we can to help these women and children out that are living in the shelter.”

Combined, they expect to collect more than 6,000 items. They’ll continue to take donations through May 6, making sure it all gets delivered to the shelters by Mother’s Day.

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“In my life, I’ve never had to start over from nothing,” Marketing Manager Blake Danz says. “I can’t imagine the courage that it takes to escape a household and start over like that, especially with your children, so these are creature comforts that we’re trying to provide on Mother’s Day, and then also provide necessary items like diapers that may last throughout the year.”

For more information on how to support Movers for Moms, or to find a collection site nearby, click here.

Cox Media Group