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Nora Gomez always does her part at home for recycling. She doesn't stop there. Gomez also recycles at work at the Hilton Garden Inn, where she has created a system that donates soap to shelters. She has been doing it for nearly five months.
"I was looking for a way to help,'' says Nora, who has worked at the hotel for seven years. "I was looking online for a way to recycle. I don't have to put anything out of my pocket and it doesn't cost the hotel, so I didn't have to get approval."
Gomez's system works like this. Housekeepers place used soaps in bags, which are then dropped in a bucket. Gomez found a company that picks up the soaps, sanitizes and re-packages them, and delivers them to homeless shelters. "A lot of times the soaps have only been used once,'' Gomez says. "They're worth recycling. If they're not worth recycling we throw them away." The Norwalk Emergency Shelter, Gillespie Center in Westport and Prospect House in Bridgeport benefit from Gomez's idea.
Gomez, the hotel's executive housekeeper, sometimes needs to urge her staff to provide more soaps. "I push them to get more,'' she says. "I tell them the bucket seems kind of empty." She doesn't stop there. Hotel guests sometimes leave clothing, which the hotel keeps for 90 days. If it goes unclaimed, Gomez takes it to shelters. "It makes you feel good that you're doing something good for somebody else,'' Gomez says.
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