IAHSP Community Worldwide Staging Service Week
Project:
Our Portland Chapter found a wonderful shelter to accept our gifts of Staging for this years World Wide Staging Service Day! We chose The Good Neighbor Center in Tigard, and were greeted by a highly grateful staff and group of Clients at this deserving Center for displaced families.
With our incredible group of 22 volunteers (18 were ASPs and 4 were family), we were able to tackle 2 separate, yet connected projects.
The Center needed MUCH painting (it had been eight years since they last had volunteers come in and paint for them), and freshening up of the common areas. At the same time, we were able to Stage the new home of a Client family of 6 who had recently left the Center to be placed in their own home. Clients are given a bare minimum of furniture to begin their new lives, so we were able to provide an extreme make-over and give them a warm and homey space in one day of joyful Staging.
Seven of us traveled to the Residence to begin the makeover, while the rest of us tackled the painting.
The Center project, led by IAHSP Ambassadors Jill Canfield and Marsha Carlton, involved painting a huge Lobby and dining area, the hallway to the Residence area, and the Residence TV living area. As we worked, the staff was continually thanking us for the work that has been so long in coming. They were extremely grateful and happy that we were making such an effort for their Clients! It took 5 hours of hard and detailed work for 11 of us to get the areas prepped and painted, but when we were done, the Lobby and Dining areas were fresh with white and Wheatgrass green walls. The Residence areas had been transformed with soothing Beige tones, with the TV room being given an accent wall in a shade called “Latte”, that looked as good as it sounds. Thank you Coco for being the premier “cut-in” artist of the day! Shar, Janis, Heidi, her husband Chris, Liz, Marda, and Peg were troopers amongst miles of paint! As we worked on the painting, our Chapter President, Mary DeBella, was hard at work with her crew of 3 (Diane, Renee and Maureen) creating beautiful pieces of art for the common areas. Each piece was handmade and geared toward inspiring comfort, hope and motivation to those who spend time at the Center. They also recovered a screen, providing much-needed privacy for families and their visiting guests.
After the painting was completed, we replaced a broken-down couch and slip-covered all the seating in the TV room. We used pillows, throws, our new handmade art and accessories to make it homey and comfortable. We also put up a TV bracket to get their donated flat screen TV up out of reach of curious little fingers. Thank you to Matt Canfield and Chris Coulter for that little bit of technical expertise! Thank you too to Matt and Chris for the many hauling and cleaning duties that fell to the husbands on hand. ( And thanks to James Canfield, just for being our mascot cutie!)
The staff cried with disbelief, and the Clients reveled in the luxury of warmth and comfort that their temporary home now gave them.
A few miles away, the second crew, consisting of Diane, Lynn, Gigi, Trish, David and Romedy, and led by Nik Murrow, was working its magic on the apartment of our recipient family. All six members of the family had been sent off for the day (lunch and movie tickets for all!) to make room for our 7 volunteers to work. The family had done a fantastic job at clearing the clutter before we arrived. We started right in at clearing the old furniture pieces out and rearranging the spaces. They were using computers on the floor and the TV was on an old coffee table. We brought in a gorgeous new desk with lighted shelving and a new entertainment unit for the TV. We had so much to do in a short amount of time and it was all coming together. We loaded in the new couch and dressers as well as all the accessories and put the rooms together. Thanks to everyone who donated the beautiful furniture and décor for this project. We provided all new bedding and pillows, shower curtains, side tables, couch, lamps, rugs, and art. The team worked so well together and really enjoyed this project. This house looked like a beautiful home when we were finished. The family arrived to a dramatic reveal of their new home and instantly loved it. They didn’t think they were in the right house! The kids were so excited and ran around looking at all the rooms. The boys got to their room and said, “ Look, they made it better!” The daughter’s room was princess perfect and her friends were coming up from the other apartments and screaming about how awesome it was. The master bedroom was now a serene getaway with beautiful bedding and art so Mom and Dad can relax there. Soon the house was buzzing with all their friends who were excited to see our Staging to Live. The family was so grateful and we got hugs from the kids in appreciation. It was the best feeling to know we had created a home they could be proud of and given them things they could not have gotten themselves.
During all these activities, we were lucky enough to have food angels keeping us fed and watered throughout the day. Thank you Diane H., Renee, Diane F., Liz and Marda for keeping us fed and hydrated!
In addition, we have to thank Maureen for being the gog-fer between projects and for procuring a last-minute donation of a twin bed and additional art from (Peoples Furniture, to whom we are eternally grateful), for the Residence home. Thank you Lynn for transporting the bed, thus making sure that the young girl at the Residence home had a nice new place to sleep in at days end.
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Project Ambassador: Jill Canfield And Marsha Carlton
Chapter President: Mary DeBella
For more info on this chapter click here
Thank you Sponsors:
