Community Story
Norma Reinhardt Mascarotti, Thrift Shops Volunteer
It started with a red fur coat.
Norma Reinhardt Mascarotti used to see the Housing Works Gramercy Thrift Shop from the M23 bus, but it wasn’t until she spied a red fur coat in the window that she decided to walk through our doors and into a new chapter of her life.
For the last seven years, the ebullient Mascarotti has volunteered two days a week at the Gramercy shop where she curates the jewelry case and attends to a coterie of jewelry customers. A retired fashion industry veteran, Mascarotti says Housing Works was a perfect fit. “I had worked all my life and still wanted to be involved in something. With Housing Works, I thought, ‘Retail is my background. Maybe I could do something!’ I’m proud of the jewelry cases. I helped build a business that might never have existed.’” Mascarotti eventually joined the Thrift Shops board of directors as a volunteer representative.
Mascarotti volunteers elsewhere, but Housing Works is her great love. She relishes the youthful staff—“I consider myself with-it!,” she says—and recognizes that Housing Works’ true jewels are its clients. “I’ve worked with clients who have come from such terrible circumstances and here they are, working with you on a job. They’re incredible,” she says.
Make a difference
Join the ranks of those on the frontline in the fight against AIDS. Housing Works has diverse volunteer opportunities in our stores, at the office and in the field.
