ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Our community is full of kind of people who work to make their neighborhoods a better place to live, work and play for all. Sabra Wood takes a little time to do a lot of good for others. 

What You Need To Know

  • Sample Soap collects unopened toiletries, both full and sample size 

  • Since 1990, Sample Soap has distributed more than 80,000 pounds of personal care products to people in need around Rochester

  • Soap collection bins are located at a dozen businesses around Rochester including Craft Company No.6, The MAG and Parkleigh

When Wood isn't in her Cat Clay studio throwing and glazing some super quirky vintage ware art and having some fun with famous people's mug shots or creating art with her cats, Beckett and the late Clifton, she can be found just down the hall at her volunteer-run shampoo, lotion and soap mission she started back in 1990 as a strategic marketing and finance executive at Xerox.

“Welcome to Sample Soap,” said Wood. “We are 100% volunteer. We never ask for money, we just want toiletries you don’t want. Full size, sample size, we love them all.”

She has collection bins set up at businesses around Rochester for this year-round effort to get feel-fresh products of all sizes to people who need them most.

“Some people would say, why do the poor need cosmetics? I had a little piece of torn brown paper bag that one of our customers had written on it, ‘thank you for the perfume, my husband says I am beautiful,’ and that was the end of that discussion,” said Wood.

Sometimes the littlest things make the biggest impact. Sample Soap has donated 80,000 pounds of product so far.

“We distribute toiletries to everyone from AIDS survivors to migrant workers to runaway kids to the truly homeless. The list goes on and on,” said Wood. “Sample Soap has meant to the world to me.”