Being a Blessing

By Denice Rovira Hazlett
March 7, 2013
298

Summary: The Blessing Design Team is just what it sounds like, a big-hearted, hard-working team of designers who volunteer their time to bless women and their families who are going through tough stuff. Story: Craig and Julie Yoder went to Pittsburgh for the weekend. The minute they left, a gang swept in and started tearing things apart. When the Yoder's returned on Saturday night, they could hardly believe their eyes. It wasn't that the Yoders were completely taken by surprise. In fact, they knew a crew of high-energy women would sweep through their Walnut Creek home. They understood that these ladies might cut up their heirloom furniture, toss out their living room sofa and take a hammer to their stone wall. And they were thrilled. Barb Chalmers of Berlin loves transformation. As the owner of Restoration Details, an interior design and consulting company, Chalmers believes a woman's home should be a haven for when times get tough and life gets messy. It doesn't have to be perfect or showy, she says, but it should be safe and comfortable. In 2011, Chalmers was at church wondering how God could use her abilities. She was remembering a client whose husband was out of work due to a physical disability. She had come to Chalmers with a very limited budget and a strong desire to redecorate her home. Before long, Chalmers found herself pouring every spare moment into the project, painting rooms when the woman was away so she'd return to a brand new living space. "I felt so blessed," Chalmers remembers. "I wanted to do that again and again and again." So on that Sunday morning, Chalmers talked to God. "I can make things pretty," she said, "but what do you want me to do with that?" Before the service was over, her bulletin was crammed with scribbles--plans for her project. And she had a name for it, too. The Blessing Design Team. "I meet so many people who need design help but can't afford it," she says, "but there's only one of me. So I decided to put a team of women together who do the same thing I do. "My idea was, wouldn't it be cool if we could encourage other women who were going through something tough, a way to love on her, to help her with her home, to make it beautiful?" The idea caught on. In no time, the Blessing Design Team became ten women ready and willing to transform homes--and lives. Before their initial meeting, Chalmers had the first family. The Collinses were overwhelmed and needed help. Three of their five children had been diagnosed with Peroxisome Biogenesis Disorder, a rare genetic condition causing muscle weakness, loss of speech, sight and hearing. Children with PBD typically live ten years or fewer. The family had purchased a home and immediately starting noticing problems, the worst being the standing water and black mold accumulating in the basement, wreaking havoc on the children's immune systems. It wasn't what Chalmers had envisioned. After all, her talent was design, not basement repair. But that October, the team quickly pulled together a Christmas home tour to raise funds. The project would cost $8500. The tour brought in $8,600. They were able to fix the basement and redecorate the children's bedrooms. This year, the team again held a home tour and put out word that they were ready to work. Nominations poured in, but, over and over, two families were mentioned, that of Julie Yoder and Debbi Hoxworth. The team decided to do them both. The Yoder home was first on the list. The Yoders' 3 1/2 year-old daughter had come into the world after an uncomplicated pregnancy but soon began showing troubling symptoms; her eyes weren't tracking, she wasn't rolling over, and she missed the typical milestones of her age. "After countless tests, blood draws, MRIs and spinal taps, we still do not have a central diagnosis," Yoder writes on the Blessing Design Team's blog. "But there is concern that whatever 'it' is is progressive." The Yoder's home took a back seat when their daughter's symptoms appeared. Because she's not able to sit up or walk on her own and most of her meals are received through a feeding tube, even the simplest tasks become complicated for the Yoders. "It's an older house, so it wasn't a priority," Julie Yoder says. "Decorating was the last thing on our minds." Enter the Blessing Design Team, including: Karen Brown of Millersburg; Betty Sue Chupp of Dundee; Lena Schlabach of Shreve; Amy Schlabach, Julie Kaufman and JoEllen Hummel of Berlin; Ruby Troyer of Winesburg; Debby Schrock and Dina Yoder of Beach City; and Mae Yoder of Trail. The Yoders headed off to Pittsburgh, giving the design team carte blanche to paint or renovate to their hearts' content. "I had four people Facebook me who didn't even know me, didn't know the family," Chalmers says. "Debby Schrock from Beach City called and we sewed the curtains all day. We were strangers when she came to my house and friends when she left." Chalmers gestures to two ladies that are "painting like crazy," in the kitchen. "I didn't know them, they didn't know me, and they're awesome," she laughs. In one weekend, the women transformed the living, kitchen and dining rooms into gorgeous new spaces with fresh coats of bold colors (thanks to a generous half-price discount from Sherwin Williams of Millersburg), sleek new lighting fixtures, and a new couch and love seat. They hammered obsolete flagstone shelves off of a stone wall and removed the doors and dillies from Julie Yoder's grandmother's hutch, painting it black with special paint donated by Homespun Treasures. The family returned from their weekend outing to a delicious meal, provided by Rebecca Miller of Rebecca's Bistro in Walnut Creek, and rooms they barely recognized. Their reaction? "I really didn't know what to expect," Julie Yoder says. "I love the colors. They feel calm and soothing, and we really need calm and soothing. I can't stop looking at it." "We feel so humbled that people who don't even know us gave up their time to do this," Julie Yoder says. "Thank you doesn't seem like quite enough." The Blessing Design Team's next project is the home of Debbi Hoxworth of Millersburg, who lost Jason, her husband and the father of her four young children, to a rare form of bile duct cancer last year, just nine months after his diagnosis. The team has a few tricks up their sleeves to bring transformation to the Hoxworth house, but they still need funds to make it happen. "We would love to raise just a bit more money for carpet," Chalmers says. "It really needs it." Chalmers is thankful for the women who come together to brighten lives. "There is no greater joy than to use the gifts we have been given to bring hope and encouragement to another person." To donate to the Blessing Design Team's Hoxworth Family project, or to be involved in the renovation process, contact Barb Chalmers at 330-998-2434. Visit their Facebook page or go to blessingdesign.blogspot.com for before and after photos.

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