AFR SETS THE WORLD ON FIRE – WITH HOPE!!!!!

If you were given the opportunity to change someone’s life forever, would you? If you had the power to restore hope, would you? If you could transform tragedy into triumph, would you? Last year, AFR Event Furnishings had an opportunity to do just that in partnership with Event Pros Take Action and the St. Bernard Project in New Orleans. It feels better than just about anything we’ve experienced in the world. If you haven’t heard the buzz, then here are a few things you should know.

Last year, AFR Event Furnishings donated two households of furniture, and in July, went down to New Orleans with a team of event pros and helped deliver 15,000 products to households desperately in need of basic items like china, glass, silver, linen and more.

Working with Design Angels from the event industry, we were part of a team that helped design, rebuild and then completely furnish homes for two very special families, including bed sets, carpet, sofas, chairs, end tables, flat screen televisions and so much more.

The “easy” part was the work in the hot and humid environment in pouring rain. The best part was celebrating “Welcome Home” parties with the help of two celebrity chefs, confetti canons, champagne and grilled oysters. We watched as the two families with tears of joy running down their face, cut the ribbon and toured their homes with the Design Angels. We cried with them.

In 2012, AFR Event Furnishings is donating $20,000 which will entirely refurbish and repair one house and in addition will provide furnishings to make it into a home. We’ll be down in NOLA, July 17th – 20th working along side a team of industry event pros to make sure every detail is perfect. You will work hard, sweat, cry and celebrate with joy when it’s all done and one more family gets to go home. Sound fulfilling? It is.

Contemplating the huge undertaking of what we are trying accomplish also brings the thought to mind that we are not only changing one family’s life, we are impacting generations to come. There is a ripple effect that with nourishment will grow into an astounding movement of communities supporting one another in terrible tragedy. Most every one will experience a time in our lives that we need a hand up. Why not provide it for others who need it now?

“We’re throwing down the gauntlet and asking you to join us in this worthy endeavor. There are over 60,000 families still living in FEMA trailers, overcrowded circumstances or even homeless in New Orleans. Life to these fellow Americans has been a path of terrible struggle and hardship (without basic necessities we often take for granted) since Hurricane Katrina left a devastating swath of destruction in its wake. We think it’s a pretty great feeling to be able to help in such a meaningful way,” says Tricia Schmitt, Director of Marketing for AFR Event Furnishings.

She goes on to say, “It is in this spirit of giving that AFR Event Furnishings has decided to include all of you in the joy of changing a life this holiday season. So when you look in your stocking and you don’t find a little something from the AFR Santa this holiday season, it’s because it can’t be boxed and mailed. Hope, charity and second chances just don’t work that way. But rest assured that every NOLA family that steps back into a life of normalcy, eats off a real plate, and looks to the future with hope, means that together we are changing the world, one corner at a time, and you, are a part of it.”

For more information on how you can join in and get involved, please contact tschmitt@rentfurniture.com If you are unable to donate funds, you are certainly welcome to volunteer some muscle and enthusiasm next July in NOLA. We promise you, it WILL transform a life – maybe even yours.

AFR Event Furnishings provides its customers with distinctive furniture collections, quality products and a promise of service satisfaction. We are the premiere provide of stylish, quality furnishings and accessory rentals for your next conference, meeting, tradeshow or event. With multiple locations throughout the country, AFR is ready to serve its clients no matter the place or time.

For media inquiries/hi-res images, please contact Tricia Schmitt, at 856.406.1206 or email tschmitt@rentfurniture.com. For more information on AFR Event Furnishings, please visit www.afrevents.com.

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