BY KATE PICHEL
Correspondent
FARRAH MAFFAI staff Vincent Puma (l) and Victoria Stelmach, director of development for The Arc of Monmouth, talk during the grand reopening of the newly renovated Arc of Monmouth Thrift Shop, Red Bank. As the youngest of nine children, Vincent Puma learned a lot about life from his older siblings.
But the most important of life’s lessons, according to Puma, were taught by his brother, Carlo, who, although developmentally disabled, showed him the value of enjoying simple pleasures and handling the challenges of everyday life with grace.
“Some of my greatest lessons in life have been taught to me by a man who doesn’t speak,” said Puma, 33, who grew up sharing a room with the brother he credits as being his greatest influence.
Puma’s roommate and older brother, Carlo Puma, 41, is a mentally retarded adult who is enrolled in a day program offered by the Arc of Monmouth, Tinton Falls. The Arc serves more than 1,500 people with developmental disabilities and also offers support services to family members.
“It’s difficult to explain what Carlo has taught me to those who have never had an opportunity to develop a relationship with a special person like him,” Puma said at the reopening this fall of The Arc’s Thrift Shop at 77 Monmouth St., Red Bank.
Renovation of the thrift shop, which has been a Red Bank fixture for 30 years, was Puma’s way of helping to improve the quality of life for other people with disabilities.
While Carlo has a large and loving family that serves as a support network, Puma was aware that other mentally retarded adults might not be as fortunate.
The Marlboro resident contacted Victoria Stelmach, The Arc’s director of development, to ask what he could do for other clients.
“I started talking to Vicki about the need to generate some revenue,” said Puma, who heads his own retail brokerage firm.
He learned that a major source of income came from The Arc’s thrift shop, which led to the idea of renovating the shop to help increase profits.
According to The Arc’s 2003 annual report, donated merchandise sold at both the Red Bank thrift shop and The Arc’s thrift shop on Main Street in Matawan brought in a combined total of $283,988. Contributions made by the public were far less, totaling only $57,217. The total revenue generated after expenses, including expenses for the day program, netted $469,304.
“The thrift shop is a top source of income, and I thought it would be a great project,” Puma explained.
The renovation, completed last month, was the latest project sponsored by the Carlo Foundation, a not-for-profit established by Puma in 2003 after the death of his and Carlo’s father, Salvatore Puma.
“His death was a catalyst for all of this,” said Puma, who channeled his grief into positive energy, enlisting the help of more than 100 volunteers to renovate the thrift shop.
“There was a lot of negativity [after his father’s death],” he said. “I was talking with my brothers, and we wanted to take that negative energy and create an outlet for doing something positive.”
For the past seven years, Carlo has been a member of The Arc’s recreation program, which he attends every day from 1 to 4 p.m.
Members of the program “get to watch movies, do crafts and eat lunch together,” Puma explained. “He [Carlo] loves it. When Dad passed away, we realized how valuable The Arc was.”
The first event hosted by the Carlo Foundation was a carnival held at Camp Arrowhead in Marlboro in June.
“There was an enormous outpouring of emotion. Family and friends offered help,” he said.
The foundation’s largest project to date was the renovation of The Arc’s thrift store.
Puma enlisted family, friends and volunteers, who began work on Sept. 30 and completed the transformation of the cluttered thrift shop one week later, on Sunday, Oct. 3.
Help came from volunteers like Robert Evangelista, a contractor who donated his time as a skilled laborer, and Anthony Scamardella, who coordinated members of the Middletown fire department and gave a small grant, Puma said.
Financial backing for the renovation came mostly from Puma’s own company, Hudson Trading.
“Fifty percent of the funds raised for the project were from Hudson Trading,” said Puma, who is the firm’s president and CEO.
Additional funding was provided by Network Agency, an insurance and financial services firm headquartered in New York that is managed by Angelo Puma, another of Puma’s brothers. Another brother, Dr. Joseph Puma, a cardiologist and co-chief of cardiology at New York Methodist Hospital, donated funds through The Heart and Vascular Centers, which he owns.
With the funding in place, Vincent set about facing the project’s major challenge.
“The biggest problem was that there was so much junk to remove,” he explained.
To oversee the renovation, Puma had to overcome a lack of experience in the construction business.
“You learn as you go,” he said. “Everyone was willing to spend the time. We worked our way through it one step at a time. They had patience with me and Vicki, and everyone enjoyed themselves.”
Stelmach said this is the first time the thrift store has been remodeled since it was opened 30 years ago by 35 mothers of children with developmental disabilities.
By the time the thrift store celebrated its reopening, it had gotten a complete overhaul: holes in the walls were plugged, new shelves and bins were installed to better organize and display merchandise; and new carpeting and light fixtures were installed.
The reconfiguration of the shop opened up the storefront windows, giving shoppers a better view of what the store has to offer.
The redesign of the thrift store resulted in a more attractive and better-organized place.
“Good stuff was hidden that you could not appreciate before,” Puma said.
As part of the renovation, Puma and Stelmach partnered to reorganize the business end of the thrift shop.
“We repriced everything,” he said. “Vicki used the renovation as an opportunity to redo the business.”
Now, not only is the retail store more organized, but the financial records are as well.
“The renovation gave the store a friendly, clean atmosphere,” Stelmach said. “It’s like a treasure hunt. You can find anything from Pez dispensers to antiques.”
“We can channel this energy into doing even more for the community,” added Puma. “This project is only the beginning, not the high point.”
The Arc’s Thrift Store in Red Bank is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Thursdays, 1 to 7 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.