Give Kyle Harrington a chair, paint, stained glass and a charitable cause and he can turn $45 into $1,400.
Harrington, a sophomore in architecture, was one of more than 75 people that donated chairs to this years “Take a Seat for Chair-ity” part of the fifth annual Hearts of Gold fundraising gala, which benefited Central Ohio’s only free furniture bank – Material Assistance Providers.
“Take a Seat for Chair-ity” and the MAP gala, which took place in mid-March, are now annual events that attract more than 700 people. The MAP gala holds two auctions, both silent and live, selling donated chairs to bidders. Out of the chairs donated and decorated for the silent auction, the top five are sold during the live auction later in the evening.
Harrington painted an ordinary wooden chair scarlet and gray with an a scarlet stained-glass “Block-O” inlaid in the seat. Archie Griffin also signed the chair before the auction.
Harrington’s chair was one of three with an Ohio State theme and sold for the highest price.
MAP spokesman Jeremy Ball said Harrington was the only OSU student to enter a decorated chair in the gala’s two-year history.
“Art is my hobby,” Harrington said. “I took it all four years in high school and I continue to do it.”
Harrington said it took him three days and about $45 to complete the chair.
“I thought it would go for a couple hundred dollars – at most, $500,” he said. “But not $1400.”
Patricia Martin, whose husband John bought the chair, said he did so because OSU of his love for the university.
“OSU is near and dear to his heart,” she said. “His son graduated in 2001 and he really enjoyed being a part of Ohio State.”
Martin said she was pleasantly surprised when she learned the chair was designed by an OSU sophomore.
“It made the chair that much more special,” she said.
She said she has even had visitors see the chair and try and buy it from them, but to no avail.
Harrington said art will remain an “escape from doing schoolwork” and stay as just a hobby.
Though he is planning on doing more chairs for MAP galas in the future, he intends on keeping his job on campus in a work-study office and at home as a teller for Huntington Bank.
“It was a really great experience,” he said. ” And it’s really cool to do something to benefit something great.”
