Business Profile: Yorktown Love in Action, Mohegan Lake
Photo credit: Neal Rentz
Lifelong Yorktown resident Donna Simone has demonstrated her compassion for local residents in various ways as a mission in life.
“I’ve always helped people. I was a single mom up until eight years ago when I married my husband (Frank Soto),” Simone said last week. “I always had people reaching out to me and giving me a hand here and there and I always helped people myself.”
For example, three children, on separate occasions, who needed a place to stay, lived with Simone and her family.
Simone furthered her charitable efforts by opening Yorktown Love in Action in Mohegan Lake in August 2011. “When I got married I didn’t have to worry about working my butt off to support my kids so I talked with my husband about it. I said I’d really love to take what I do to a larger scale,” she recalled.
Yorktown Love in Action helps two categories of people – “families” and friends.”
Local families helped out by Yorktown Love in Action live in such local communities as Yorktown, Mahopac, Somers, Cortlandt and Peekskill. Financial assistance is provided to families who have fallen on hard times for a variety of reasons, such as illness, cannot be receiving government assistance, have at least one person working and are in the process of getting themselves out of their financial difficulties, Simone said. Bills are paid for families with whatever money is left at the end of the month after the costs of overhead of her charity have been paid. Families receiving assistance need to volunteer or have someone else volunteer at Love in Action.
“We’re trying to help them catch up,” Simone said.
If a person is in need of help who is receiving government assistance he or she could qualify as a friend, Simone explained. “They completely shop for free,” she said. Furniture, clothing and linens are among the items “friends” can obtain for free at Yorktown Love in Action and Simone’s husband will provide delivery of the items if requested.
Yorktown Love in Action accepts a wide variety of donated items, including records, clothing, CDs, DVDs and even cars. The donated items are available for purchase with proceeds going to the charity; donated to individuals in need or sold to companies with the proceeds going to Love in Action.
Financial donations are also encouraged. Love in Action has a monthly donation plan that has a donation automatically taken from a person’s credit card, Simone said. “If everybody in this town gave me $1 I would have thousands of dollars every month,” she said.
Local businesses have been chipping in by setting clothing boxes for donations, with the items sold for contributions or provided to the families and individuals Yorktown Love in Action assists.
Donations of items or money provided to Yorktown Love in Action are tax deductible.
Though she has worked tirelessly to help local residents, Simone and Yorktown Love in Action is itself in need of assistance in the coming months aside from donations. Her building and others on her street will soon be torn down to make way for a new shopping center that will be located across the street from the Cortlandt Town Center. Simone is seeking to lease a 10,000 to 20,000 square feet building for a new location and she is seeking a landlord who will provide her with discounted rent.
Simone explained her passion for helping others. “If people don’t work together to help each other what is it all about? What are we doing here?” she said.
Yorktown Love in Action is located at 3144 E. Main St., Mohegan Lake. It is located across the street from the Cortlandt Town Center on Route 6. For more information, call 914-490-3966 or visit YorktownLoveinAction.com.
