Kellogg Frosted Furniture is a Kansas City-based boutique that brings character and beauty to vintage furnishings. Purchases fund the college expenses of a dedicated young man in the Philippines who is focused on lifting his family out of poverty.
Transformed home furnishings created with a HEART to help others! What does transformed furniture have to do with helping others? The story starts with a young man named Benjie ... More than 10 years ago, Gina — a 40-something, newly divorced, working mom — began sponsoring Benjie through Compassion, an international humanitarian organization. Benjie was 8 years old — the exact age (and birthday) as Gina’s son, Cole. Sponsoring Benjie — paying a monthly fee that provided for his health and educational support — was a kindness that Gina hoped would help her son recognize the many advantages he had growing up in the suburbs of Kansas City. Over the years, Gina got to know Benjie and his family — and their struggles — through letters and photographs. It typically took 2 to 3 months for correspondence to be translated and forwarded, but it was always worth the wait. One year, Gina received a letter from Benjie that mentioned his home had burned down after a fire ravaged his neighborhood. Frantic, Gina began looking online for news of the devastation. At that time, she wasn’t aware that fires were a sadly common occurrence in slum areas like where Benjie’s family lived. After much searching, she found a months-old story in a local Filipino newspaper that matched the approximate date of when the fire destroyed Benjie’s home. She sent an email to the editor of the paper asking if he could provide more details about what had happened since the devastation. He wrote back and said that all of the displaced families had initially been put up in a local school but had since moved in with relatives or friends. Gina was relieved, but it was a significant reminder of the relative luxury in which Gina and her son lived in their Midwestern home. After Benjie turned 18 and graduated from the sponsorship program, he and Gina became friends on Facebook. One day, Benjie’s girlfriend sent Gina a message. Bea wrote that Benjie was shy and wanted to ask Gina a question. He was hoping she might be able to help him with the expense of attending college so that he could get a stable job with reliable income that would allow him to help improve his family’s life. Gina understood his need for help. At that time, she was working as editorial director for another sponsorship organization. She knew that those who are born into poverty rarely have the chance to break out of it due to its limitations on their lives. They are destined to a life of struggle unless they are given a boost up. Benjie had received that type of boost over the years from Gina’s donations. Now he faced a new challenge. Gina told Bea that she wanted to help Benjie, but that he needed to do the asking himself. She knew that for him to successfully become a self-sufficient adult, he’d need resolve and dedication. It wouldn’t be easy. Benjie worked up the courage and finally sent Gina a note. (Students in the Philippines learn English as part of their studies.) So began Benjie’s efforts to pursue his career goals. He started looking for a college, determined a course of study and enrolled. Today, Benjie is in the middle of his second year of classes learning the technical knowledge he’ll need to work on a merchant ship. To help fund his costs, Gina worked on finding an opportunity to earn some extra money on the weekends. She had refurbished a vintage table and got positive feedback from others on how it turned out. So she found some additional pieces and began pouring her creative energies into giving previously loved furniture new life. The result was Kellogg Frosted Furniture, her boutique business devoted to investing in the financial support for Benjie's college and related expenses. As you look through the renovated furnishings that Gina has created, know each one has a loving extra touch. And know that you, too, are making a real difference in the life of someone else when you make a purchase! Thank you!
