IAHSP Community Worldwide Staging Service Week
Project:
Our chapter was delighted to work with the local Ronald McDonald House in Minneapolis. In actuality, there are four houses combined into one campus, all connected by enclosed passageways. The 48 family rooms are 100% occupied, and there is a list of 20 families situated around the metro area waiting to get in. After meeting with our contact, Mike Orum, there was mutual agreement between the staff and us that we would focus on five areas: Two ‘family’ rooms; the movie theatre, laundry and toy room. Because of the dire need for families to be moved into the family rooms quickly, our goal was to be completely finished by Wednesday. This we accomplished!
A group of Stagers were not available during the actual Worldwide Staging Service Week so Tuesday, September 4th, Marianne Rigby along with her committee, Jill Erickson, Carol Erks, Mary Berg, and Spring Loberg, moved, cleaned, painted, organized, and created a sunny laundry area….replacing the dreary gray one that existed. Basics for sewing and mending will be added at a later date. Unfortunately even with the super painting skills, they were not able to put the theater room back together. It had been prearranged for an upholstery and carpet cleaner to be there at the same time so everything was left to “dry.” Needless to say the committee put in a full day and left extremely tired but fulfilled! The areas were completed on Tuesday of service week.
We were immensely helped by a large group (approximately 18, in fact) of Beth Patnode’s friends, family and neighbors; Carolyn Sommers and Dawn Selman- Schwieger. This group was tasked with the priming, and painting the walls and ceilings in the toy room, the bathrooms, the living rooms, sunroom and the two bedrooms. Their goal was to finish it all in one day so that the true Staging could start on Monday, to expedite getting the families in quicker! They succeeded except that they had to stop two walls short due to not enough paint. Beth’s friend from Certa Pro Painters, Eric Morus, even pitched in by helping cover the cost of Davanni’s pizza for the crew since he couldn’t be there to help in the painting efforts. Thanks Eric – and thanks to the large group of painting helpers!
On Monday and Tuesday, Chris Kuklok’s committee finished painting and Staging Family Room 324. Previously the walls were wallpapered white and peeling in sections. Walls are now warm creams and taupes, with gold and muted red accents; and cheery green in the bath. New art pieces (two from Personal Preference), functional and updated lighting and soft and casual window treatments are some of the improvements made to give future guest families the warm and cozy feeling of home. This was quite a large area and included a wonderful three-season porch painted from very dark to warm and light, and updated with a new bench and tables. The Stagers, Sharyn Meagher, Karen Northway, Angie Weeks and her friend Jill, were wonderfully successful in making this a restful retreat.
Linda Tobin’s committee, Darbi Comparetto, Dawn Selman-Schwieger and Judy McCabe, which tackled Family Room 111 was fraught by challenges. First, the carpeting which was supposed to be in before service week started, wasn’t installed until Wednesday morning which was our scheduled deadline for being completed! Second, due to that delay, there were additional scheduling issues for our busy ASP’s to be present to help as much as they had wanted to. It was also decided that due to running out of paint, two of the walls needed to be faux painted in order to have the room finished on time. But thanks to a very long day and dedicated, proficient Stagers, the room was finished in time for a family to move in that evening!
The toy room staging was undertaken by Carol Slavick. Because the room is a play area for children ages 0 to 12, she decided that appropriate words would provide entertainment for the older children---bright colors and shapes for the younger ones. Based upon fabric for a Roman shade with a ‘star’ theme that she made, she wrote the following on three different sections of walls: The Mother Goose rhyme, ‘Star Light, Star Bright;” the song Jiminy Cricket sang in the movie “Pinocchio”--- “When You Wish Upon a Star;” and a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Hitch your wagon to a star.” Multi-colored stars and silver spirals completed the wall graphics.
Comments from the staff and residents at the Ronald McDonald House were unanimously positive, and in some cases they were incredulous because they couldn’t believe the transformations that had taken place in such a short amount of time.
Two other professionals who helped us out were Tom Vogler of Superior Carpet and Cleaning, and Dennis Merillat of CertaPro Painters in Bloomington. We were immensely grateful to have their expertise on our project.
Total amount of money raised: $1356.50!
Click here to see more photos
Project Ambassador: Carol Slavick
Chapter President: Linda Tobin
For more info on this chapter click here
Thank you sponsors:
|
| CertaPro Painters of Burnsville
1609 Country Rd 42 West
Burnsville, MN 55306
800 462-3782
612 860-6646 (cell) |
|
|
Tom Vogler DBA
Superior Carpet Cleaning
968 Falcon Drive
River Falls, WI 54022
715-425-7887 Business Phone
|
|
|
Wendy Hamilton
Associated Sewing Supply Co
690 Snelling Ave N
St Paul, MN 55104
651 645-9449 |
