A fresh coat of paint dries on a bench Ed Porter restored with a group of Mobius Inc. clients he works with. The group has have partnered with Stepping Stone Thrift Store to restore furniture being sold to help generate more revenue for Stepping Stone Housing Inc. and provide camaraderie among the group. (Photo courtesy Ed Porter)
A partnership between Mobius Inc. and Stepping Stone Housing Inc. is turning donated furniture into a fundraising tool while giving a group of men with developmental disabilities the chance to build skills and contribute directly to their community.
Ed Porter, of Bristol, who works part time at Mobius, an organization that provides support services to people with developmental disabilities and their families, is refurbishing furniture from Stepping Stone Thrift with the help of a group of five clients he works at Mobius.
A dry sink sits in the woodworking shop at Mobius Inc. in Damariscotta. The dry sink is one of the many pieces of furniture part-time employee Ed Porter has restored with a group of men he works with through the Mobius program. According to Porter, the group has been restoring furniture from Stepping Stone Thrift Store since fall 2025 to help the store sell the pieces for more. (Photo courtesy Ed Porter)
Porter said the idea for the collaboration grew out of a conversation he had in the early fall of 2025 with Karen Bachelder, who runs the thrift store through Stepping Stone Housing, an organization that provides affordable housing for individuals and families who earn less than a living wage.
“I drove past Stepping Stone (Thrift) for years and never actually got out of my car and walked into the place. And when I did, I was so impressed with not only Karen, but also with everybody there, including the volunteers,” Porter said.
After seeing the furniture she was selling in the store, Porter thought he could use the help of the group of men he works with at Mobius to help the store out.
“I just kind of walked in and talked to Karen and said, ‘Listen, we might be able to help you out with some of the furniture you get that is not great, but could use maybe a little bit of work on it,’” Porter said. “’We would do the work and then bring it back in, and you can sell it and make more money.’”
The group will often completely disassemble items like antique dry sinks, then sand, repair, and refinish them so that drawers, doors, and hardware work smoothly again. Tables, including drop-leaf styles, are cleaned, tightened, and given a fresh coat of varnish or finish to restore both function and appearance.
Chests of drawers that arrive in “pretty sad shape” are rebuilt so the drawers open and close properly, then painted and cleaned up into attractive, usable pieces, Porter said. The group also repairs benches and similar items, focusing on structural stability, extensive sanding, and careful refinishing so each piece returns to the thrift shop in significantly better condition and ready to sell.
Porter said that he has worked with his group of men on several woodworking projects prior to the collaboration with Stepping Stone Thrift. He founded a woodworking program through Mobius as a way to find activities for some of the people he was working with.
“One of the missions that we have in our program is doing community support activities,” Porter said. “We’ve helped people build portable ramps and done furniture and all kinds of stuff like that. We have many people come to us with small projects that they would like us to do, and if it’s within our scope, we’re more than happy to do it.”
Bachelder said the work Porter and his group have done has been able to increase sales for the thrift store.
“He has probably finished half a dozen pieces,” Bachelder said. “These pieces are given to us, but some of them are in pretty rough shape … people are pleased at the quality of work he is doing, so it’s a very good collaboration.”
Porter said he has no plans to stop his work and is planning on continuing to refurbish furniture for the thrift store as long as he can.
“As long as I’m standing and continue doing the work, and I think that the guys in the program would do it forever,” Porter said. “They like what we’re doing. They like the camaraderie. They like the sense of contributing.”
For more information about Stepping Stone Thrift, go to steppingstonehousing.org. To learn more about Mobius, go to mobiusinc.org.
A restored table sits in the the Mobius Inc. woodworking shop in Damariscotta. Ed Porter, who works part time at Mobius, is working with a group of clients to restore furniture from Stepping Stone Thrift Store, the funds of which benefit Stepping Stone Housing Inc. (Photo courtesy Ed Porter)
