NOAH_Refrigerator1-small.jpgCrane Appliance’s Eddy Guerrero and Angel Medina deliver a new refrigerator to the NOAH Shelter in March. 

Imagine having a refrigerator that sometimes stopped working. On the women’s side of the NOAH Shelter, staff and guests didn’t have to imagine because it was a reality.

“I’d get calls that it just wasn’t working,” said shelter director Greg Bar. “You’d have food in there warming up. The milk would be turning to cottage cheese.”

So in January, Bar put out a request for a new refrigerator that went to HAC staff. Deanna Bussiere, HAC’s resource development coordinator, reached out to several contacts to see if anyone would be willing to donate one.

In March, that request was answered thanks to the generosity of Crane Appliance in Falmouth, which donated a brand new, black refrigerator to the shelter. As delivery drivers Angel Medina and Eddy Guerrero worked to unload the appliance from their truck, Bar and Jan Rogers, direct care staff at the shelter, commented on how sorely needed the refrigerator was needed.

“This is very generous,” Bar said. “You know it sounds silly, but when people donate something really nice or new like this to the shelter, the people here feel a little more valued.”

This type of philanthropy is not out of the ordinary for Bob and Paula Crane, owners of Crane Appliance, who regularly support local schools on Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard. After receiving Bussiere’s letter and a follow-up phone call, Bob Crane said, “I felt like this was the right thing to do… You know at the end of the day it is about giving back to the community.”