Community Forklift in Edmonston Marks 20th Anniversary With First-Ever Gala

More than 250 people gathered Thursday to celebrate Community Forklift’s 20th anniversary.

Since starting in 2005 with just one truck, the Edmonston-based nonprofit has grown into a multimillion-dollar salvage and reuse organization with three full-time truck crews that collect items across the Washington, D.C. metro area. Last year, the nonprofit processed 225,000 items through its warehouse, which amounts to about three million pounds of material.

Community Forklift founder Jim Schulman, a licensed architect, told the Hyattsville Wire that he started the nonprofit after offering courses on deconstruction job training programs to teach people how to dismantle buildings and salvage and reuse their components. He needed a place where these salvaged items could be brought and sold because there wasn’t one in the D.C. area.

But his biggest obstacle was unexpected opposition from some Edmonston elected officials who worried a warehouse filled with salvaged items would attract rats, and they also had plans at the time to turn the space into a museum about the town of Edmonston. As it turned out, the leasing agent on the warehouse was a former Redskins player, and Shulman said a signed football from him helped smooth things over.

In line with its mission of reusing and repurposing building materials, furniture, and home essentials, Community Forklift’s first-ever gala, the Salvage Soiree, took place inside its 40,000-square-foot reuse warehouse at 4671 Tanglewood Dr. in Edmonston. Denizens Brewing, Co. one of the event sponsors, served its All-American Lager and Southside IPA while 2Fifty BBQ fed the crowd with its menu favorites. Guests also enjoyed live music from the bluegrass band Cherry Blossom Special. Sponsors of the soiree included Washington Gas, Something Vintage, BOWA. and the Naomi & Nehemiah Cohen Foundation.

The evening also featured sample spaces from area interior designers. Kate Talbert, who runs the Instagram account Dive Bar Vibes, decorated one corner of the warehouse with, among other things, old-fashioned chrome barstools, a stuffed fox, a vintage decanter and, in a bit of political commentary, an upside-down neon sign that said “White House.”

Community Forklift Executive Director Trey Davis said that 79% of the nonprofit’s revenue is generated from sales at its warehouse, but it has recently been fundraising to increase its capacity.

Apart from keeping material out of landfills, Community Forklift also supports local artists and small businesses seeking affordable and durable goods and has awarded $1.2 million in grants since 2012, Davis said.

Last year, one of those grants helped Emma’s Torch, a café that offers culinary training to refugees and asylum seekers to develop valuable job skills, open its new location in Woodridge, just south of Mount Rainier.

The café received the Community Partner Award at Thursday’s event, alongside Jane Solomon, a longtime board member, supporter, and trustee of Community Forklift, who provided early seed money for the nonprofit and was honored with the Cornerstone Award.

Community Forklift’s landloard, Washington Gas, who was the presenting sponsor of the Salvage Soiree, plans to end intensive commercial use of the three-acre property where the organization is based, but is allowing Community Forklift to remain open while it searches for a new home, and has committed to continuing support for the nonprofit.