The HON Company Has Lead Role In Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Rescuing A Nashville Pre-School Ravaged By Floods
“We turned to The HON Company knowing that they could contribute the perfect furnishings for the classrooms at Lighthouse School. We hope that these solutions will set up the students and teachers for more successful classroom experiences than they have ever had before at this facility. We did not want to just replace; we wanted to innovate and position the school for a brighter future.”
—Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Senior Producer Diane Korman
In May of 2010, severe floods devastated the Nashville area. What became a national symbol of this natural disaster was the vision of the community’s Lighthouse Pre-School floating down the local highway. Four months later ABC-TV’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition came to the rescue, enlisting the best builders and manufacturers to rebuild the facility and position it for a successful future.
The HON Company responded to a call from the show’s design team to provide its award-winning SmartLink™ classroom furniture, along with seating for students as well as for instructors and aides. The contribution of furnishings also included Vicinity desks and storage units, and chairs from its Ignition seating series. All told, HON furnished the entire facility including classrooms, a lounge, reception area and administrative offices.
“Extreme Makeover is a special reality show that celebrates the indomitable American spirit and illustrates how important collaboration and cooperation are among individuals,” said Shelley deSilva, HON vice president marketing. “These are The HON Company’s core values, as well, so we felt especially privileged to participate in this project.”
Products
SmartLink Student Desks
SmartLink Teacher’s Stations
SmartLink Storage Cabinets
Vicinity Work Storage Systems
Ignition Seating Collection
Opportunity/Goal
The HON Company joined Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in acknowledging that the loss of the Lighthouse School was a grave loss to the community. It was agreed that this was an opportunity to not only help replace this vital Nashville institution, but improve and upgrade the educational experience— bringing greater functionality and adaptability to the classrooms and ensuring the optimum learning environment.
Solutions/Results
In choosing SmartLink, HON provided the most top-of-the-line educational furnishings available. SmartLink is a comprehensive, visually coordinated classroom furniture solution and is known as the best in the market.
- The furniture is durable, mobile, multi-functional and adaptable.
- The desks have accommodations for notebooks, laptops, backpack hooks and adjustable heights.
- As the classroom evolves, the entire furniture solution evolves with new learning styles from group work to individual stations.
- It fosters interaction and collaboration easily between student groups as well as during teachercentered activities.
- Storage units and teacher desks can be moved with ease from one classroom to another.
- The visually dynamic and ergonomic designs create an environment that’s stimulating, progressive and conducive to learning.
SmartLink goes to the head of the class when it comes to classroom furnishings. That’s because it is based on extensive research and study conducted by The HON Company to fully understand what type of furniture is needed for this end-user segment. The company interviewed facility managers, interior designers, teachers, principals, administrators and students and learned that the optimum solution should help to foster interaction, offer sensible organization of teaching materials, work with today’s technologies, be durable and highly adaptable to a constantly evolving academic environment. What HON ultimately created based on this insightful input were mobile teacher stations, innovatively-shaped student desks, versatile modular storage, a unique wall rail system, white boards and other accessories. SmartLink is a collection that instantly earned one of the furniture industry’s most prestigious honors, a Best of NeoCon Silver Award.
“HON’s reputation for quality school furniture is well-established. To have our new pre-school building be supplied by HON is truly an honor. We know that this furniture will enable our teachers at Lighthouse to continue to offer these precious little ones an excellent education. In fact, HON donated additional furniture to use in our elementary school. It is comforting to know that one thing we will not have to worry about for years to come is the desks, chairs and furniture supplied by The HON Company.” Brian Sweatt, Principal Lighthouse School
