Portland teacher gets classroom makeover in Wayfair B2B promotion
Courtesy / Wayfair
Portland first-grade teacher Chelsea Haffenreffer won a $10,000 remodel of her classroom in a Wayfair business-to-business promotion.
Wayfair, a significant employer at Brunswick Landing and in Bangor, is best known as a retailer of home furnishings. But a Portland teacher has remodeled her classroom with $10,000 of the company’s products after winning a national contest held by its business-to-business division.
Chelsea Haffenreffer, who teaches first grade at the city’s Riverton Elementary School, was one of five winners among 2,300 contestants in Wayfair’s Dream Classroom Giveaway, according to a news release Tuesday.
The contest accepted applications earlier this year, and Wayfair said it chose the makeover recipients based on their “meaningful impact on a student, class, or community, a unique teaching approach, or how an upgraded teaching environment would foster student learning and participation.”
In her classroom, Haffenreffer teaches 20 students, some of whom face socioeconomic and developmental hardships. A Wayfair spokesman said the company provided chairs, tables, storage accessories, wall decor, bulletin boards, art supplies and a library area full of bookshelves.
Haffenreffer worked with a Wayfair designer to select furnishings that would meet her students’ needs and suit a complicated room layout.
“My new classroom has had a major impact on how my class functions for me and for my students,” Haffenreffer said in the release. “My first-graders love their new classroom and all the options for how they can learn and interact throughout the day. It feels like a fresh start.”
The other winners were from California, New York, South Carolina and Utah. Each received about $10,000 of products, according to the spokesman, some of which were donated by Wayfair suppliers.
Margaret Lawrence, vice president of Wayfair Professional, said, “We’re thrilled to announce the Dream Classroom Giveaway winners. These are exceptional teachers who are leaders and innovators in their communities. We hope that with top-of-the-line classroom furniture, storage, and décor, these teachers will have the upgraded classrooms they need to continue impacting their students and community for many years to come.”
Wayfair Professional is a membership program that provides business customers with products from thousands of brands, as well as special discounts, service, shipping and invoicing. The company launched the program in 2012, and this is the first year it has held the classroom contest.
Wayfair (NYSE: W) is the country’s largest online furniture retailer, according to Forbes magazine, and in June reported $8 billion in annual revenues. The Boston-based company employs 14,000 people, including roughly 1,000 at call centers in Bangor and Brunswick, and has been staffing up in Maine over the past few years.
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