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San Diego Chapter
The San Diego IAHSP Chapter chose St. Clare's Home, Inc. in Escondido as our project for the Charity Staging Day. St Clare's is a shelter for homeless and battered women and children. They have 7 safe houses, a day care center and corporate offices--all in desperate need of 'Staging' and more.
We initially choose to do the classroom and lounge at the corporate offices. Then, after talking with Sister Clare (the founder), we were told the homes needed much more help than the office. Each houses 4-5 women with 1-4 children. So we said OK - we will do the one in the worst condition. Little did we know what we had gotten ourselves into!
Staging 'Day' 2006 turned out to be more like Staging 'Month'! What started out looking like a simple project was not. Each time we started something, we would find more things that needed repair or replacement. These homes are in desperate need of help. We did as much as we could plus more, but soon realized that we only had limited time and resources. Meeting the girls and realizing where they have come from and what they have been through makes you want to do all you can to help them.
With the help of many generous donations of time and products, we were able to make at least one of the homes much more comfortable and livable. A big thanks to some major contributors, Hoferer Construction, Emmerson Construction, Cort Furniture, Casual Dining & Bar Stools and Patricia Edwards furniture manufacturing.
Hoferer's Construction donated laborers and materials to do electrical wiring, put up ceiling fans, knocked down a wall to open up the entry and completely redid the closets putting in shelves and doors. They worked two days before 'Staging Day' and truly made a difference.
Emmerson Construction of Encinitas is replacing all the kitchen cabinets and countertops. This was not done by the time staging day came but went in after. The existing kitchen cabinets were missing drawers, mismatched and falling apart. What a difference this will make in the kitchen.
Patricia Edwards donated 2 loveseats, 2 chairs and rolls of upholstery material from which we made bedspreads and window treatments. The left over upholstery fabric will be donated to the local adult education upholstery class.
Casual Dining & Bar Stools donated a beautiful dining table and we purchased 6 matching chairs with donations. Cort Furniture donated a coffee table and end tables plus misc. kitchen items. Other donations received were vinyl floor tiles for the entire house, paint, wallpaper, bedding, towels and bath items, bath fixtures, mirrors, pictures, rugs, kitchen appliances, shelving, curtain rods, plus many more items too numerous to mention. We had Boomer (a local fun park) passes donated for a place the ladies and their children could go while we tore apart their home. Any items that we did not use in the home we staged will be used in the other 6 houses or sold in the St. Clare's Thrift Shop. Cash donations were used to buy ceiling fans, a bathroom sink, medicine cabinet, shower curtains, dining chairs, kitchen appliances, many, many misc. items needed for the project and a plumbing service to cap off a gas line uncovered when the cabinets were torn out. The total value of donations and labor was almost $27,000. Wow!!
We had stagers coming in beforehand to do things that needed to be done prior to staging. Painting, laying floor tiles, measuring and sewing bedspreads and window coverings - anything we could to get ready for Sat. We even had Paramedic trainees to help us out. They needed a community service project to complete their paramedic training. Four helped on Friday and five helped out on Sat. Saturday we had 10ASP's, the paramedics and 4 friends and family members to help.
Well! Everything we thought would be done before Sat. didn't get done. So--Sat, Sept 17, 2006 was spent doing minor repairs, painting, tiling plus a little 'Staging'. We all learned a lot about home repair. We had members with electrical skills, plumbing skills (they even replaced one of the bathroom sinks), seamstresses, painters, floor tile layers and much more. What a talented group we are!
At the end of the day, we were exhausted! The house was in much better shape but there was still work to be done. The girls who lived there came home and said how beautiful it was! One even cried when she saw her room. Another wants to become an ASP. They thanked us over and over. One of the 4 year olds made us a thank you card. It really was worth all the work we did when you saw their reaction.
The next week, each day one or two ASP's went in to finish projects and to 'fine tune'. After the installation of the kitchen cabinets the project will be completed. Sister Clare and all the ladies cannot thank us enough. As a side project, we sewed nap pillows for the St. Clare's Day Care Center. They care for 63 babies and toddlers. Most are children of the women in the safe houses and others are from low income families.
Attached is a list of donations received, a list of everyone who worked on the project and before and after photos of the project.
Thank you all so much for your help and donations. It could not have happened without you. We DID make a difference!!
Patricia Clarke, Ambassador- San Diego IAHSP Chapter
Photos' of our Staging Service Day:
Visit the San Diego Chapter Website.
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