Hank Commodore knows children who no longer sleep on the floor. He has fostered some himself. Others have beds because he donated beds to their families.

This largesse comes from a heart as large as the warehouse he rents in New Kensington, where a tractor-trailer backed into a bay is almost always full of furniture that Mr. Commodore buys and receives to give to the needy.

Now 61, the former high school guidance counselor found his life's work somewhat by accident, before he was drafted into the NBA in 1971 out of Northwest Oklahoma State University in Alva.

In college, he said, he and some friends went to a fair where he won stuffed animals shooting baskets and playing arcade games. "I handed them out to kids," he said. "Then I started thinking, 'What if I started giving them to handicapped kids?' "

In a subsequent job working with juvenile delinquents in the Oklahoma state system, he said, "I learned about these kids who didn't have any place to live. That's what started me taking my first [foster] kid."

After a brief stint with the Carolina Cougars of the old American Basketball Association ended with a bum knee, he returned to Northwest Oklahoma State for a master's degree in education guidance and counseling.

A Leechburg resident, he worked for 25 years for the New Kensington-Arnold school system as a guidance counselor specializing in home-school relations. He sponsored youth festivals, worked with probation officers, made home visits and drove parents to school conferences.

"I handled discipline," he said. "I was a trouble shooter. I used to call kids into the office and say, 'Why are you acting up? What do you need?'

"I'd buy new shoes and ask them for behavior changes to get them. I'd talk to their parents, find out what they needed. We always check out the need. It might be a washing machine. And [in exchange] I asked them to have a positive attitude and do the right things for their kids."

He retired early, suffering from polymyositis, an inflammatory muscle disease, with which he said he was largely bedridden for more than three years.

He still has bad days but works as he can as a furniture angel in his organization Giving Back. It operates through the Friends of Eden in New Kensington.

The partners raised money to cover trucking expenses and warehouse rental. Mr. Commodore said he has borne most of the expenses. He also has a friend at Levin Furniture.

Jack Jones, now a store manager in Middleburg Heights, Ohio, was working at Value City in Monroeville when Mr. Commodore visited one day.

"He said he was working on a project to get furniture to needy people," Mr. Jones said. "I was able to give him furniture, maybe slightly damaged or returned but very usable. He purchased some, and what was slightly damaged he would repair himself.

"We had a rapport and this was a worthy cause. He called me some time ago when I started working for Levin Furniture, and I connected him to our corporate offices."

Besides Levin, he gets support from several churches, the Walker Funeral Home, his attorney, Ray Ambrose, and "people who don't have a lot," he said. "Millionaires don't help out."

Diane Fetterman, who lives on Social Security, lost her home to foreclosure in Apollo and recently moved into a public housing complex across from Mr. Commodore's warehouse.

"I needed beds really bad," she said. "He gave me three for my two kids and me. He has helped me a lot. He also gave me a couch. He will give you the shirt off his back."

Rudy Chambers, a disabled commercial roofer and a former student, volunteers with the organization.

"He was my basketball coach," said Mr. Chambers. "I knew what he was doing, and I wanted to try to better my life."

Mr. Commodore was Antonio Wilson's guidance counselor in high school. "In the summertime, he would come out and have picnics for us and give kids school clothes," Mr. Wilson remembered. Now Mr. Wilson, who works at UniFirst, volunteers for Mr. Commodore on weekends.

"I've been here 23 years and as long as I've known him, he's been out there trying to help people," said New Kensington police Chief Ron Zellers. "He would do things like get up early and knock on doors if he knew kids might not make it to school on time."

New Kensington Mayor Tom Guzzo, another former student, delivered the keynote speech at a student essay contest Mr. Commodore held at Valley High School last year.

"All the kids wrote about the importance of helping the needy and not the greedy," said Mr. Guzzo. "It made the kids think."

He called Mr. Commodore "a tremendous character among the good people with really tremendous hearts. The world would be a better place if there were more people like that."

What motivates Mr. Commodore is "my heart. I see a lot of people who don't have anything. Times are rough. Just putting on a new pair of clothes makes you feel good. And mattresses that get babies off the floor. It can make a whole lot of difference in people's lives."

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