IAHSP Community Worldwide Staging Service Week
Project:
This year, the Austin Regional Chapter of IAHSP chose the Austin Ronald McDonald House as their benefactor for 2007. Ronald McDonald House provides a home-away-from-home for families with critically ill or injured children being treated in Austin area medical centers. The House serves as a comfortable place of lodging and allows families to relax in a supportive environment while maintaining their close proximity to their hospitalized children. Due to a small staff, the House relies heavily on community involvement from diverse groups of volunteers.
Prior to Staging Day, some of the stagers met at the House to host an “art making event”. With canvases and art supplies that had been donated, we used the small hands of children staying at the House and some of the stager’s children to create “hand art” using a water theme. Melody Burns added finishing touches to the pictures which then became the art work in the playroom.
On September 11th, stagers who are members of the Austin Regional Chapter stopped their regular businesses and worked together to transform the playroom at the House. We weeded out toys which were no longer usable and replaced them with new or gently used toys that had been donated. The room was rearranged for better flow. Toys were organized in containers that had been donated. A TV/DVD combination was added as a new feature to the playroom, donated by Best Buy. Another DVD/VCR was donated by Susan Honning to replace a VCR that no longer worked in another area. With a place-for-everything, and everything in its place, the Austin Regional Chapter had created a relaxing place to play for the siblings of the ill or injured children being treated at local area medical facilities. We wanted to create a homey place for the children to play while they are away from their own toys and play things.
The chapter, also, prepared the evening meal for the families who were staying at RMH. All meals at the House are prepared by volunteers. The Austin home stagers prepared a Mexican themed meal complete with a taco bar, rice, beans, guacamole and dessert.
What a great day we had staging together and cooking together. We are usually so busy with our own businesses, we don’t have an opportunity to spend the day together with each. By being together and giving of ourselves to others, we all came away feeling like we had received much more than we had given.
All of the food and toys for the event were donated by local businesses and the home stagers.
To see Before photos click here
Click here to see a slide show of photos
Project Ambassador: La Nell Haynie
Chapter President:La Nell Haynie
For more info on this chapter click here
