By Leslie Batoha
Review Special Writer
For Matt Pfeiffer, Northern Flooring has always been about the community.
Building for the community, providing for the community, and now inspiring the community. This year, Pfeiffer chose to renew Northern Flooring and Interiors’ sponsorship of Design For A Difference, a nationwide competition put on by the International Design Guild that allows designers to use their talents to redesign a charity of their choice to better serve something he’s all about: the community.
Although this is not the company’s first year sponsoring the event, Pfeiffer is still drumming up interest by providing clinics and other events for local designers. In order to expand the community’s knowledge of this competition, Northern Flooring hosted the Clear The Clutter event with Mark Brunetz, a celebrity designer on the Style Network and author of ‘Take the U Out of Clutter?.
‘It was cool to see him signing these books and seeing the designers get all excited around him. I had guys coming up to me after [the event] whose wives had obviously dragged them there saying ‘at first I didn’t want to come, but I loved it. I learned so much,’ and that was cool,? Pfeiffer said.
And who could blame them? Brunetz gave great tips on how to de-clutter the home and talked about using a garage sale to fund a house renovation project. In addition, Brunetz also hosted an event to increase professional designers’ knowledge of Design For A Difference.
‘We had quite a crowd in the parking lot. About 88 people showed up, and I’m sure it made people wonder what was happening,? Pfeiffer said.
To further prove his allegiance to his community, Pfeiffer and the rest of Northern Flooring employees box care packages for the troops annually. Last year, with the help of Buffalo Wild Wings and other local businesses as well as local families, they managed to pack 420 boxes to send.
‘It becomes a real mission to do this. It affects everyone involved, and we can always see that. Last year was nice because people were crying and telling stories, and kindergarteners even made lunches and wrote letters [for the troops,]? Pfeiffer said.
The Design For A Difference contest is accepting applications on their website (idgcontest.com) until June 1 and is open to interior designers, architects and students alike.
According to Pfeiffer, it is so simple to enter and is for a really good cause. The grand prize is $25,000 in goods and services, but regional winners also receive a jumpstarter package of $2,000. Northern Flooring is also looking for charities in need of renovation for local projects. In order to really make an impact on the community, Pfeiffer feels that he must find ways to continue to bring events and projects to Lake Orion.
‘My hope is to soon have regular events. We’re playing around with some ideas, but our next event is a disk presentation for Metro Detroit. We’ll also have a personality assessment in the fall for some of the other design firms.?
For more information on the Design For A Difference competition, go to idgcontest.com. For ways to help out the community, or for charities looking to renovate, contact Matt Pfeiffer of Northern Flooring and Interiors at 248-693-9457, or come into the store at 616 South Lapeer Road in Lake Orion.