Faces Of: Teresa Ward, Rocky Point Business Owner Cleans for a Reason

Teresa Ward is the owner of Teresa's Family Cleaning located in Rocky Point.  Ward is the founder of the New York Chapter of Cleaning for a Reason.  Cleaning for a Reason is a nation wide organization that provides cleaning services for free to women undergoing cancer treatment. 

Ward along with her assistant Margaret Nicosia, a cancer survivor, sat down with the Miller Place-Rocky Point Patch to tell us about the importance of the cause and what the community and local business owners can do to help.

How did you get involved with Cleaning For a Reason?

Teresa: I belong to an association called the Association of Residential Cleaning Services International and Debbie Sardone was the president of the board at the time, and I’m also on the board of directors. There was probably about ten cleaning companies that got together at a cleaning convention in Chicago. And we thought about what we could do to help women that were undergoing cancer treatments.  I lost my sister in 2003 so it really resonated with me on how I could give back to the community.  So in 2006 the organization Cleaning For a Reason was formed.

How does having a clean home help the patients?

Margaret: Cancer is like the common cold on Long Island, the simplest thing like having a home that is clean makes a difference. You come home from your chemo treatments or a week after and you can’t move. To have someone come and just dust and vacuum, it's one of the important factors when you're recuperating and I’m a cancer survivor so I do know what it feels like.

Teresa: Not only for the aesthetics but for health reasons, they are coming home from treatments and things need to be clean, and sterile. It's another reason why we’ve gone green, we’ve been green since 2008. The amount of cancer patients we were cleaning we decided to just go all green and now we are introducing chemical free cleaning. We are in the midst of buying all the equipment where we go in and it kills 100 percent of all the mold and 100 percent of germs and bacteria with no chemicals at all just ionized water. That will be incorporated for anyone that has immune issues as well as cancer patients.

Can you tell us about TW Cares?

Margaret: Because Teresa wants to give back continuously, and not just to women we started TW Cares. To offer free cleaning services to anyone that is going through cancer treatment, men, women, families that have a child. And veterans, we actually offer to anyone in need but the cost is exuberant and the demand is high.

Now there is a wait-list for free cleanings, how can people or local business owners help and get involved?

Margaret: Go through TW Cares, donate an hour of cleaning for $65. For a business we put them up on our newsletter and it gives them a month of advertising on the weekly newsletter. And a reciprocal link as a cleaning angel to get their business on our website. For an individual they would get their name up or in memory or honor of a loved one.

To get donations is a big thing, that is what our goal is so we can do more, donate $65 to one place you know where it's going and it’s a service that someone really needs. One in three people know someone that is affected by Cancer, not one in eight it's one in three, that’s the new numbers. That aspect is scary.