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Dearborn Press & Guide

Woman aids Vista Maria by making over girls’ bedrooms

By Lisa Yensen, Press & Guide Newspapers

 

“The kids were crying and screaming. It was awesome,” Amy Adamson Unit Manager of Vista Maria in Dearborn Heights said. “It was like ‘Extreme Home Makeover.’”

Although the Myriam House on the Vista Maria campus was not featured on the “Extreme Home Makeover” program, it did receive a makeover – an Enchanted Makeover.

Enchanted Makeovers is owned and operated by Terry Grahl but she did not start out doing makeovers. Enchanted Makeovers started out as Terry’s Enchanted Cottage, which was founded in 2005. In January 2007, Grahl received a phone call from the black tie event coordinator of Great Centers of Hope, a Pontiac shelter. The phone call sparked the transformation of her business from an interior design business of private locations to a non-profit organization that “transforms shelters for women and children into places of peace and possibilities – not just where basic needs are met, but spiritual needs for hope and beauty also.” Terry’s Enchanted Cottage became Enchanted Makeovers officially in January 2009.

“It’s healing for the women and for me. I didn’t get that with working with clients. It didn’t have the same substance,” Grahl said. “I really want to give women hope.”

Grahl’s work on the interior of the Myriam House started in October 2009, but the process, called the “Vision Project,” started long before then. The makeover included the help of many volunteers – from painting to creating handmade slippers and hope chests – the volunteers donated from around the globe.

Kristi Grahl, Terry Grahl’s sister-in-law, spent time at Vista Maria helping the girls plant and grow a garden.

“It kind of fell in my lap when I was looking for something,” Kristi Grahl said. “There was a group of five girls that really championed the garden.”

Later, Kristi Grahl and the girls used zucchini from the garden to make zucchini bread.

“Actually being able to work with these girls was a very good opportunity to make a difference. I’m actually in the process of becoming a mentor and plan to continue helping Terry out,” Kristi Grahl said.

“This is my calling. This is what makes me happy. I feel like I’m really making a difference. I feel like I have a purpose,” Terry Grahl said.

Nov. 15, 2009 was the day the Vista Maria makeover was revealed to the girls living in the Myriam House.

“The last day was the biggest part. Their [the girls] response was overwhelming. To have something like this done for them, by a group of strangers no less, was very touching. As a volunteer it was very overwhelming,” Kristi Grahl said.

“They did a lot of work while the girls were in school. They weren’t really disheveled at all. They did it in stages,” Adamson said. “That last day all the stuff was coming in, it was amazing.”

The rooms of Myriam House, once bare and littered with graffiti, now have hand-painted dressers and bed frames. New donated comforters adorn the beds the girls sleep on. Hope chests were created by hand and sent over filled with items for the girls. Handmade slippers were donated. The hallway that connects the girls’ bedrooms has been painted with a mural that includes flowers, mushrooms, fairies, and trees.

Also donated were jewelry boxes filled with jewelry, new journals, notebooks and books, 40 pairs of flip flops, deodorant, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, and makeup.

“It’s important to put faith into action. It empowers so many people not to give up on dreams. So much is possible, and things come full circle with makeovers because everyone is helped,” Terry Grahl said.

Terry Grahl’s Enchanted Makeovers, in conjunction with Modern B*a*g Ladies, is working on Project Traveling Sanctuary. This Project gives people the opportunity to reach out to women and children in need by creating pillowcases accompanied with an uplifting note and an optional personal token. The pillowcases are then distributed to “at risk” women and children. Directions and shipping information can be found at http://www.terrysenchantedcottage.com/downloads/ts-instructions-printable.pdf.

“Sometimes people don’t want to get too involved. They can make a pillowcase and we hope it’s a catalyst to something bigger. It can lead to a transformation of themselves and make them ready for the next level. They start asking themselves ‘What else can I do?’” Terry Grahl said.

Terry Grahl is also involved in The Sisterhood of Dreamers into Doers group with MarthaStewart.com. She will be traveling to New York in January 2010 to contribute to work being done at a domestic violence shelter called Safe Horizon.

Terry Grahl plans to do more makeovers in the future. She picks each shelter by looking at their programs and getting a feel for the way things are run.

“Her perseverance with this is amazing. She doesn’t give up,” Kristi Grahl said. “Everything she sets out to do – she does it. I know she has a tremendous amount of faith. It’s really been amazing to watch her on this journey.”

“The women and children [at the shelters] are not different, they just have different stories. They make you look inside and evaluate your own dreams. When you do a makeover [at a shelter], everyone gets a makeover,” Terry Grahl said.

Like the saying on one of the girls wall says: “You are the hero of your own story.”

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