The Grand Happiness Foundation was founded in 2011 as part of Grand Home Furnishings’s 100th anniversary celebration. Grand spent the year working closely with organizations, providing furniture and mattresses or volunteer time. It was an honor for us to assist these organizations, many of whom aren’t in the spotlight and all work hard year around with limited budgets.
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WSHV: Grand Home Furnishings Donates Mattresses to Va, W.Va. Habitats

Sep-26-11

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September 26, 2011

Families from West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee reaped the benefits of “Grand Gestures” for Habitat for Humanity affiliates across the three-state region.

Grand Home Furnishings decided last fall to celebrate its 100th anniversary by saluting the communities that helped the company reach 100 years.

Grand delivered eight mattress sets to 10 Habitat for Humanity affiliates within the company’s three-state region.

The Grand Happiness Foundation was founded based on Grand Home Furnishings’ century-old belief that happiness begins in the home.

The foundation’s mission is to bring happiness and hope to those in need, specifically focused on the safety, health and education of women and children in our community.

Read this article online at www.whsv.com

The News Leader: Furniture store, employees supporting Habitat for Humanity

Sep-19-11

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Community News
September 4, 2011
 
» Furniture store, employees supporting Habitat for Humanity: Grand Home Furnishings is celebrating its 100th anniversary and is recognizing the communities that helped the company reach this milestone. As a part of the company’s new Grand Happiness Foundation, the stores’ employees have participating in “Grand Gestures” throughout the year — from painting gymnasiums to car washes, from donating furniture (tens of thousands of dollars in furniture has been donated, with much more to come) to volunteering at food pantries, the staff has been researching and identifying neighboring organizations that will benefit from a gesture of kindness.

A furniture retailer with a very successful mattress department, Grand decided to take advantage of that with a “Grander” gesture that would benefit 10 Habitat for Humanity affiliates in Grand’s three-state region. Since late August, Grand has been delivering eight mattress sets (a mattress set consists of a mattress and a matching foundation) to the Habitat affiliates in Staunton, Augusta and Waynesboro.

Read this article on www.newsleader.com

The Mountain Messenger

Sep-17-11

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September 17, 2011

Laker Weekly: Grand donates to SRHS learning apartment

Sep-16-11

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Friday, September 16, 2011

Staunton River High School’s adapted curriculum special education students are learning in an atmosphere that’s just like home – literally: Their otherwise traditional classroom includes an apartment.

The concept is a creative collaboration by teachers Laura Kohout and Anna Watkins. The course is designed to teach special education students life skills in a real-life, hands-on setting.

The program was designed to help students obtain the skills they need to live as independently as possible. From cleaning to understanding expiration dates on food, these students can utilize a hands-on experience to maximize learning. Students in the program range in age from 15 to 22 and have developmental disabilities ranging from autism to poor mobility. (more…)

The Roanoke Times

Sep-16-11

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Friday, September 16, 2011
By JoAnne Poindexter

Grand Home Furnishings continues to celebrate its 100th anniversary by saluting the communities that helped the company reach 100 years and providing Grand Gestures.

From painting gymnasiums to car washes, from donating furniture – thousands of dollars’ worth – to volunteering at food pantries, the Grand Home staff has been researching and identifying organizations that will benefit from a gesture of kindness. (more…)

Daily News Record: A Grand Gesture

Sep-15-11

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Published September 9, 2011

Christiansburg gesture helps kids get comfortable with reading

Sep-15-11

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Many of us have heard the saying, “Reading is fundamental,” but Grand Home Furnishings has worked to put the FUN in fundamental at Christiansburg Middle School with its latest Grand Gesture.

Christiansburg Middle School has piloted a program called the Read 180 Program in which students are learning reading skills that have ultimately helped them improve their reading levels and scores.

“Reading is an important part of their lives. It helps them improve all curriculum and then graduate,” said Joy Brown, a reading specialist at Christiansburg Middle School.

With the Read 180 Program, there are reading stations set up for students as a fun, unique way to improve their skills. One of the stations was created for independent reading, but it recommends a comfortable place to read. The reading program students were given a couch to sit on and enjoy a good book but it had been donated a few years before and was in poor condition. This is where Grand stepped in and offered our services. (more…)

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Helping Staunton River High School Build a Model for Happiness 

Sep-08-11

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Our most recent Gesture came to us when two teachers from Staunton River High School walked into our Westlake outlet store to furnish their shared vision for the school’s special-needs students—a model apartment to help them learn real-life skills.  This innovative, in-school apartment will be the first of its kind in Bedford County and is the brainchild of Laura Kohout and Anna Watkins.

Teachers from Staunton River High School

Their goal is teaching life skills and community-based instruction by taking core subject areas and applying those skills to real-life situations that students may come in contact with outside the classroom. This allows them to put specific objectives of their Adapted Curriculum to use in a realistic setting that includes a full kitchen and living and dining rooms. Students in the program range in age from 15-22 and have developmental disabilities ranging from autism to poor mobility. (more…)

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Bedford Bulletin: Just like Christmas

Sep-07-11

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Students get new class at SRHS

By Tom Wilmoth
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 10:41 am

For Laura Kohout and Ana Watkins, the Wednesday before school started seemed a bit like Christmas. They knew they were getting something special, they just didn’t know quite what.

SRHS teachers Laura Kohout and Ana Watkins get their first look at the furniture donated by Grand Home Furnishings at Westlake.

Then they walked into their new classroom.

“It’s like Christmas morning and you go downstairs to open your gifts,” stated Kohout, who along with Watkins teaches a special education class at Staunton River High School. “I’m just excited to see the kids when they come in and see everything in place.”
   (more…)

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Winchester Daily-Monitor: Grand Home Furnishings Raises $500 For Care Packages for Local Soldiers

Aug-30-11

Posted by admin in Grand Gestures | Miscellaneous - (0 Comments)
Aug 29, 2011
All politics aside, community members watch world news with one “agenda” across the board: Hoping the local soldiers are doing OK.

The local armed forces were weighing heavily on the people of Grand Home Furnishings – Winchester.  Across the company, Grand Home Furnishings’ employees have been busy making “grand gestures” in their communities on behalf of the Grand Happiness Foundation and Grand’s 100th anniversary. As the stores work toward 100 gestures, the employees of the Winchester warehouse decided to salute the soldiers  in Afghanistan and Iraq representing towns in the Winchester area.

(Standing, l to r) Ron Eaton, Reynold Pereyra (black shirt), Gary Peck, Dean Twigg, Jerry Pierce, Josh Barnes, Josh Miller, Joy McFarlane, Jamie Pierce, Dan Dunsmore. (Kneeling) Devin Stonier, who is also a Virginia National Guard soldier

The warehouse employees hosted a car wash and bake sale August 21 with the help of store employees to benefit the soldiers, raising more than $500 that will go to buying contents and assembling care packages. (more…)

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