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Kimball Office Awards New Office Furnishings to 8 New Orleans Organizations, Who Are Still In Throes of Rebuilding More Than Two Years After Hurricane Katrina Destroyed 80% of New Orleans Homes and Businesses
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JASPER, Ind. – February 26, 2008 – Kimball Office is in New Orleans this week helping businesses recovering from Hurricane Katrina get back on their feet. Today, they formally recognized the eight recipients of its Smart Actions Campaign in New Orleans for new office furniture. The recipients include four for-profit businesses and four non-profit organizations, all working to rebuild their lives and communities post-Katrina. Together, they represent a cross culture of what makes New Orleans unique and inspiring.
“You know we viewed this campaign as an opportunity for Kimball Office to give back. But it is really an opportunity to bring national attention to the economic recovery needs that New Orleans has. We’ve got to refocus on building the businesses because without businesses there are no jobs and without jobs there are no people,” said Jeff Fenwick, Vice President/General Manager, Kimball Office.
Recipients include:
- Dash Lumber: Third generation family business that stayed and rebuilt stronger than before.
- Forstall Art Supplies: Small art supplies store since 1976. They reopened four months after Hurricane Katrina flooded both of their stores, destroying everything.
- Big Chief Alfred Doucette: New Orleans Mardi Gras Indian, entertainer, craftsman and entrepreneur --representing the heart and soul of New Orleans.
- Mat & Naddie’s Restaurant and Michael’s Catering: After nine months of restoration work from Hurricane Katrina damage, they reopened in May 2006 for dining.
- Young Aspirations/Young Artists: Empowering artistically talented inner-city youth.
- Boys Hope Girls Hope of Greater New Orleans: Providing housing and a “second family” for in-need youth through college.
- Neighborhood Housing Services of New Orleans: Providing home ownership and rebuilding services.
- Dress for Success New Orleans: Promoting career development for disadvantaged women.
After a celebratory event at recipient’s Dash Lumber, 150 sales reps in town for their annual sales meeting traveled by bus to Lakeview Park to plant trees to help beautify the city parks.
In learning of their selection, some recipients spoke of their excitement and what new office furniture means to them.
“What Kimball Office’s donation means, well, there is a lot to be said for the intangible, the self-esteem to be able to provide something new,” said Cory Howat, Executive Director of Boys Hope Girls Hope of New Orleans. “Never in a million years could I have imagined the generosity of people. Who, two and a half years later, thinks about how literally we don’t have furniture or have money to buy furniture?”
“Sometimes we get news on grants, and it means a certain program can go on. But with this, it also means I can go to the staff and say ‘guess what, you know that back ache you have, well no longer!’” said Linda Santi, Resource Development Director for Neighborhood Housing Services of New Orleans.
All have inspiring stories of surviving Hurricane Katrina and returning to New Orleans.
“Leaving New Orleans is not in our DNA,” said Michael Decidue, President and third generation family member of Dash Lumber. “For a few months, we operated out of our trucks with handheld calculators. If we had a check or credit card, we had to call it in with our cell phones. It was a challenging time, but New Orleans is home.”
“When I was driving away, seeing the floods, I thought, well, I’m not coming back,’” said Steve Schwarz, owner and chef of Mat & Naddie’s Restaurant and Michael’s Catering, who headed north with his wife to Maine when the floods came. “But something drew us back. There’s no other city this small that has so much to offer, culturally. Now, with less than 300,000 people, we still have just as much culture as before and maybe more so, because we cherish it more.”
Many recipients echoed the sentiment that there is still a long way to go in the rebuilding of New Orleans.
“If you had told me that I would ever be on food stamps or receiving unemployment, I would not have believed you. New Orleans is coming back, but slowly. We’re really still getting over the storm and trying to turn things around,” said Paul Forstall, owner of Forstall Art Supplies.
“We really appreciate Kimball Office reaching out. The rest of the nation doesn’t know the battles we’re still fighting,” said Big Chief Alfred Doucette’s manager Anne Sanders.
About Kimball Office
The recognized leader in fine office furnishings, Kimball Office has been building its reputation on quality and integrity of design for more than 30 years. The company is a business unit of Kimball International, Inc., a corporation that provides a vast array of products from its two business segments: Furniture and Cabinets, and Electronic Contract Assemblies. Based in Jasper, Indiana, the publicly traded company (NASDAQ: KBALB) had sales of $1.3 billion in 2007. To learn more, please visit www.kimballoffice.com.
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