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The Northern Virginia Community College Interior Design Club Fundraiser:
The Great Chair Challenge
The Great Chair Challenge was a combination of student design exhibition, networking with the
community and silent auction. Kay Richards, President-Elect, was the spark that lit the fuse for
this event. She had the brilliant idea to create a contest where students could “flex their creative
muscles” by taking derelict and discarded landfill bound chairs and have club members
rehabilitate them into beautiful new chairs or art pieces. The three rules for the contest were
simple: 1. work independently, 2. document the work through pictures and 3. Stick to a budget
of $50 or less (and yes, they had to turn in their receipts.)
As the planning for the contest began to take shape, we realized that this event could be not
only a great venue to showcase our talented students and Interior Design Program, but a
fundraiser for offsetting club costs and potentially expanding the contest to include other schools
in the future. We drafted sponsorship letters and sent them out to David Edward, Sherwin
Williams, Pitkin’s Ace Hardware and The Workhouse Arts Center. Much to our delight, each
group agreed to donate materials and The Workhouse generously donated gallery space.
In October, the chairs were brought to school and numbers were drawn at random. The
students had to complete their chairs and turn them in on January 10th at the Workhouse Arts
Center in Lorton. The chairs were put on display by their curator in the McGuire Woods Gallery
and judged by a distinguished panel of industry professionals and a local artist. Each chair was
judged on:
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


Before and after shot of chair. How far did it come?
Use of elements of design
Creative use of materials.
Quality of workmanship.
All of the Board Members were intimately involved in creating this event.



Kay Richards, President-Elect, Event Chair
o collected all derelict chairs
o found sponsors
o Recruited our 3rd judge.
Dawn Skoog, President
o Guided meetings
o crafted sponsorship letters
o recruited 2 of the 3 judges
o silent auction
o her before/after chair pictures were used for publicity by the Workhouse
and Washington Post online
o Hosted the Chair Challenge Exhibition opening and Reception.




Sandy Manley, Treasurer
o liaison with the Workhouse Arts Center
o coordinated the set-up and tear down of the event
o Treasurer of the silent auction.
Paige Edwards, Secretary
o Reception coordinator
o Designed reception layout
Lucrecia Reyes, Communications Chair
o Responsible for printed materials and publicity
o YouTube video of all the before and after photos
Accounting
Food/Flowers
$98.33
Supplies
$78.18
Printed Materials
$332.98
Silent Auction
Total
$565.00
$55.51
Is $55.51 a lot of revenue? No. Would I consider the fundraiser a success? Yes! Why? We
learned so much and laid the groundwork for this event to continue next year and brought our
members’ work and our Interior Design Program out into the community and forged partnerships
that will help this event grow more successful next year.