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Fort Lauderdale & West Palm Beach IAHSP Chapters have now joined forces for "09" and beyond and have become the new
"South Florida IAHSP Regional Chapter" Take a look at our History! World Wide Staging Service Week 2008 Ft. Lauderdale, FL – August 29, 2008 -- The International Association of Home Staging Professionals® (IAHSP®) Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by Barb Schwarz, The Creator of Home Staging, is pleased to announce the beginning of the 4th annual Worldwide Staging Service Week, September 12th through 17th, 2008. A record 60 IAHSP Chapters will participate across the country in a week-long event to improve the lives of others through the magic of Home Staging®. Members of the IAHSP across the US and Canada will come together beginning September 12, 2008 to help local organizations and individuals in their communities who are in need of Staging® services. Past benefactors have included such places as the Ronald Mc Donald House, nursing homes, schools, women’s shelters and individuals in need of selling their homes. Bringing it all “Home” for the residents of South Florida is The Ft. Lauderdale & West Palm Beach Regional IAHSP Chapters. For the third consecutive year, The Ft. Lauderdale IAHSP Chapter will be participating and is pleased to have the West Palm Beach Chapter joining their efforts this year. The two Chapters have chosen the Children’s Home Society of Florida (CHS), specifically the I. Lorraine Thomas Children`s Emergency Home and Family Support Center in Ft. Lauderdale as their Worldwide Staging Service Week benefactors. During this special week, members of The Ft. Lauderdale and West Palm Beach IAHSP Chapters will transform a formerly empty room of the emergency home in to a “Teen Room”. The staff at CHS expressed a great need for a Teen Room as currently there is only one room that all the children congregate in. We share the same belief with CHS that it’s important for the older children to have a space of their own, so we are making it our mission to create a place for them to relax, play games and do homework. CHS is considered a “Safe Haven” for children and we want to convey that feeling every time they enter their new “Teen Room”, said Heather Johnson, Ft. Lauderdale IAHSP Chapter President. As the Ft. Lauderdale and West Palm Beach Chapters have grown, so has their commitment to community. Ft. Lauderdale’s past World Wide Community Staging projects have included the Women in Distress Shelter of Ft. Lauderdale and the Ronald McDonald House of Miami. You too can make a difference! The IAHSP Foundation, in conjunction with local IAHSP chapters, is accepting donations~ all of which are tax deductible. For More information about the Worldwide Staging Service event in South Florida or to make a donation, please visit our website at http://iahsp.com/worldwidestaging/. You are welcome to contact the IAHSP Director of Operations at: or 800-392-7161 ex 7726 or DirectorofOperations@IAHSP.com or Heather Johnson, President Ft. Lauderale IAHSP at heather@turnkeystagedhomes.com. Outcome The Ft. Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, FL IAHSP Chapters are thrilled to report a most successful World Wide Staging Service Week 2008. We started this year’s WWSSW by holding a fundraiser at America’s Backyard in Ft. Lauderdale. They were kind enough to donate the space, food and drinks for our attendees. We raffled off items donated by sponsors to further raise funds to help us achieve our goal. We had great fun to boot!
With the combined efforts of our two chapters we raised enough funds to create a new Teen room for the Children’s Home Society, I. Lorraine Thomas Children`s Emergency Home and Family Support Center in Ft. Lauderdale, affectionately known as CHS.
Let me first preface this by stating that this home serves as a true home for the children, and it was crucial for us not to disturb their normal routine or their privacy. Our working hours were limited to the school hours when the children were out of the home. We are most grateful that this was a Staging Week, as it was surely needed this year for this specific project.
To start our project, on Friday September 12th a few of us painted the Teen room to be a fresh bright Mandarin orange color; this is such a fun youthful color! We also had a wonderful donation of new carpeting for the room which was installed the following Tuesday. The combination of the wheat colored carpet with the new paint color is incredible! The ooooh’s and the ahhhh’s were starting already!
Meanwhile, in a top secret location… just kidding- more like my garage; we had a furniture assembly party. A few of us met to put together some of the new pieces that were purchased from IKEA, (what a Stagers paradise that place is!). We put together the two large pieces ahead of time so that on Staging Day we were ready to rock and roll! And after fixing the few drawers and pieces we put on backwards we got it under control. Talk about Tab A into Slot B. Geeez….
Then on Wednesday the Stagers converged upon CHS! Ten of us, can you believe in a 16 x11 room? Well, we did spill out into the hallway a bit. But being the great Stagers we are; we were so prepared! We had that room put together in no time with a new sofa, window treatment, additional furniture and accessories. I’m sure the kids will agree that the best item was the brand new Wii game system. Unfortunately I think the new books we supplied will be ignored for a while. The results as you can see below were awesome. Our vision was to create a relaxing space that the Teens can hang out in and watch TV, play games or do their homework away from the high energy of the smaller children. I truly feel we achieved that result.
As the many staff members peeked in over the several hours while we were Staging, their comments put us over the moon. They all commented on how much the kids were going to love the new space and how much it was needed. We also received many requests to come to their homes and perform makeovers. Although my favorite comment was from the Development Specialist, LaWanda, who couldn’t believe how well we all worked together, especially in that size room. To which I responded, “of course we do, we’re ASP’s”! But seriously, we all knew why we were there and how much it meant to the kids and the staff as well, and we held that mission with great honor and integrity. I’m very proud of our WWSSW team this year!
When we finished the staff at the home presented all of us with beautiful pins as a gift from the children to thank us for the donation. While we all felt it was unnecessary to thank us in that manner we were flattered nonetheless and we will cherish the beautiful pins and remember just how much these small things we do really matter!
Due to the fact that we couldn’t be there while the children were in house, we didn’t get to have a big reveal and see their expressions. But, I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say it doesn’t matter, we were just so honored to take on the task and create something for them to enjoy.
~ Heather Johnson, President - Ft. Lauderdale IAHSP
Thank you to our Stagers that helped this year!
Ft. Lauderdale Chapter:
Nancy Lee Rabold, Ambassador
Dale Handler
Diane Holm
Gayle Serra
Sandra Holmes
Lena Johnson
Bridget King
Ligia Guzman-Chacon
West Palm Beach Chapter: Fernando Rosado, President
Victoria LaBelle, President Elect
Kathy Streib
Cat Whitehurst And a special thank you to our Sponsors who donated either goods or services! America’s Backyard, Ft. Lauderdale
441 4HAIR, Coconut Creek
Luxury Nails, Coconut Creek
Crystal Roots, Ft. Lauderdale
Silver Stone’s Throw, Ft. Lauderdale
17th Street Tan, Ft. Lauderdale
Keller Williams Realty, Ft Lauderdale SE
Salon Savvy, Plantation
(Stacey Stevens, Alex Montes De OcaJen Ropke & Debbie Larch)
Silver Images @ Savvy, Plantation
Crate & Barrel, Sunrise
Gold Coast Seafood Grill, Coral Springs
Daniel Flooring, Ft. Lauderdale
Andrea’s Lessons, Parkland
Ligia Guzman-Chacon, Silpada Rep., Weston
Florida Panther’s Foundation, Sunrise
Runner`s Depot, Ft. Lauderdale
Please visit to see the before and after pictures of our project
Thank you letter from Children`s Home Society: http://i424.photobucket.com/albums/pp323/turnkey1/CHSThankyou.jpg World Wide Staging Service Week 2007 For its second annual World Wide Staging Event, the Ft. Lauderdale IAHSP Chapter has selected the Ronald McDonald House of Miami as this year’s Worldwide Staging Week benefactor. Over seven days, members of the Ft. Lauderdale IAHSP Chapter will rejuvenate many areas including bedrooms, common areas and offices of the Miami Ronald McDonald House, creating a warm and inviting “home away from home” for the families of children being treated for serious illnesses at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center and surrounding children’s hospitals..Or goal for this project is to rejuvenate as many of the family bedrooms as possible, all are in need of new bedding and bath needs. In addition we will freshen up as much of the facility as possible. We also plan to provide some personal services to the guests such as a hairdresser and manicurists during this week. We feel it’s important to “Stage” the people too! Many of them neglect themselves while a child is ill, and our mission is to not only tend to the house’s needs but the families as well! Finally we will hold a BBQ to round up the week! Outcome With our fundraising efforts we were able to bring in bedding for approximately 25 beds as well as providing new towels and bathroom needs for 13 bathrooms. We brought in new accessories and art donated by PPI to freshen up the 2 family rooms. Two local hairdressers generously donated their time and provided dozens of haircuts to the families. As the stagers passed through the make shift salon it was nothing but smiles and laughs. We finished up our week by holding a BBQ for all the families in residence. We as Stagers enjoyed renewing bedrooms and refreshing the living areas but, by far our greatest joy was at the BBQ, when we were truly able to relate and share time with the families. We heard many stories and met people from all over the world. They were so grateful and enjoyed the welcome distraction from their day to day hospital routines. It is so amazing to know that we were a part of making families with such aching hearts for their children smile and be happy! We are looking forward to next year!! Our congratulations go out to all the participating IAHSP chapters around the country on a job well done! World Wide Staging Service Day 2006 Click here to see the photo`s from our World Wide Staging Service Day! More Pictures:
Membership Information To become a member of the South Florida IAHSP Regional Chapter you must be a licensed business owner in the tri- county area, and provide Home Staging services. Members must have an ASP or ASPM Stager/Real Estate Agent designation. All members are subject to our Ethics guidelines for participation and business conduct. Members must also join the International Association of Home Staging Professionals ( IAHSP ) ($150.00 annually) and remain in current good standing as long as they are members of their local chapter. We also welcome Affiliate Business Members - companies, vendors or service providers who support our Staging efforts. Affiliate Business Membership will include annual fees of $150.00. This fee goes directly to support chapter marketing and advertising and allows Affiliate Business members to market directly to our membership as well as host our meetings as scheduled. |
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