Sturling Hayes knew she wanted to volunteer at St. Vincent de Paul, but waited until the right moment to do so. When her friend Erin Tharalson, our assistant medical director, called and said the clinic was ready for a makeover, Sturling jumped on the opportunity to help.
With the help of some of the guys that work at the warehouse, Sturling, an interior designer, completed her project after four months of work.
The clinic now has new furniture for the information desk, new chairs for the waiting area, new chairs for many of the offices, a new table and chairs for the employee break room and new painting on all the walls.
“Sometimes things even as subtle as the right paint color can make a huge difference,” Sturling said.
Lee Henry, the warehouse manager at St. Vincent de Paul, contacted Sturling as she was getting ready to start the project and told her Maricopa County had a big warehouse full of office furniture they no longer needed. The team made five trips in total to the warehouse to dig through pile after pile of furniture.
“In between rows of things, we ended up finding that whole system of desks that matches, works together and actually functions better,” Sturling said.
After selecting the furniture, Sturling and the rest of the team cleaned the upholstery and scrubbed it.
Then, she chose new colors and painted all the walls. She was even able to use some of her contacts to get a discount for St. Vincent de Paul.
“People kept saying ‘The floor doesn’t look clean,’ but it wasn’t that the floor was dirty, it was that the wall was painted the wrong color,” Sturling said. “I felt like using my abilities was more important than helping somewhere else. It was quite a process, but it’s so rewarding to see the results.”
