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Community Corner

Meet Community Volunteer Lisa Leonardi

Inspired by "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" Lisa Leonardi came up with the idea of DesignWish, a collaboration of shoreline interior design consultants, contractors and retail sponsors that transform a room in the home of a deserving local family.

 

Achievement: Inspired by the hit TV show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” five years ago Lisa Leonardi, owner of The Room Doctor, came up with the idea for DesignWish. "I remember watching some of the shows on TV and seeing the impact they had on people's lives."

"DesignWish is a collaboration of Connecticut Shoreline interior design consultants and retail sponsors that aims to transform a room in the home of a deserving individual or family," according to the website.  Nominations are solicited, from the community, for deserving shoreline individuals and/or families – from Old Saybrook to the New Haven area.  On Christmas Eve day the lucky recipient is notified, as shown in this video

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Since the very first home redesign the DesignWish team has expanded, the projects have become larger and many lives have been touched, in a positive way.

Key to Awesomeness:  Leonardi and her team visited Miner and Blanche Vincent of Clinton this past Christmas Eve day to surprise them with the news that they will be the 2012 DesignWish recipients. 

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Miner Vincent is a dedicated community volunteer who established the Families Helping Families program that provides food, through the local food pantry, to his neighbors in need. “For six years, all year long, Miner Vincent listens to the stories of our neighbors, their lives upended by circumstances, joblessness, illness: he listened, and more profoundly, responded with all his energy, time and passion,”  said the nomination letter written by Clinton resident Lynn Hidek.

The letter goes on to say, “This summer Miner was hospitalized and his recovery has been along, bumpy road.” 

“I want Miner and Blanche to have space in their home that is comfortable, organized and flexible enough to accommodate a big extended family of children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren at the holiday dinners they so enjoyed hosting,” Hidek wrote.

The letter won over the DesignWish team.  So from now until about mid-March,  Leonardi and her team will meet regularly to work out "every step of the makeover"  for the Vincent family home.  They will work closely with the family to determine, “What's working for them in their home and what's not working for them. If they could have anything in their home what would it be?”  Leonardi stresses, “This is all about the family and what will help with their situation.”

As the scale of the projects has expanded so has the DesignWish team.  The original group was three designers, one contractor and a handful of volunteers. "Now we have...I can't even tell you how many volunteers and contractors and vendors that support us." She said she can only guess that the number is around 100.  "Each and every year, as we grew as a team and our resources grew, we were able to turn this into more of a full makeover."

"Everything is done through donations," explained Leonardi. "This is just all volunteers that gather together to help out these families."

"We all try to do our best to be compassionate and to give," said Leonardi.  "And we all have our share of challenges in our own lives but there are some people that are definitely faced with more difficult situations."  

“You feel so many emotions when it's all over. You feel such a sense of accomplishment,” said Leonardi.  “You feel like this is what's really important.  This is what life is about; being there for one another and everybody gets something out of it - this feeling of fulfillment."

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