1,000 Happy Chairs
John Siegel’s passion is painting chairs
Twenty-five years ago, John Siegel started painting "Happy Chairs". He began by painting children's rockers for his grandchildren. At age 2, each child received a chair with their name painted on it.
After a while he ran out of grandchildren (14) but enjoyed painting the chairs so much he decided to paint them for other children. Each chair was either given to a child in need, sold to raise funds for a charity or sold to individuals who wanted to give a gift to a special child in their life.
Each chair is painted by hand with a combination of 22 colors. No chair is exactly alike. The majority of the chairs have the name of the child painted on the chair.
Organizations like Path to Shine, CASA Habitat for Humanity, Senior Center (Clayton), Cathedral Towers, F.A.I.T.H., three retirement homes in Clayton, Head Start & Pre-First, Indian Springs elementary school and Friends of Refugees – both in Clarkston, Georgia, are requesting and receiving chairs for the children.
In 2020 he painted his 800th chair. It was an adult-size chair to be used for an auction his parish, St. James Episcopal Church in Clayton, GA was holding. The proceeds from the auction were for Our Little Roses Orphanage (OLR) in Honduras, which St. James has supported for many years. When the bidding got to $1,000 by two separate individuals, John said he would paint a second chair. The bidding ended, having raised $2,000 for OLR. A parishioner, so inspired by this outcome, donated another $1,000 to OLR.
In the Spring of 2022, having then painted 900 chairs, John decided the next 10 chairs would be available for purchase for $195.00 in support of kids caught up in the Ukraine war. St. James invited parishioners and friends to purchase a chair. All ten chairs were sold. A couple of the chairs were sold twice. All the funds raised were sent to a charity helping Ukrainian children.
This month John completed his 1,000th chair. It already has a home. Paws4Life, Clayton, GA is the recipient.
Before it leaves John's home...
When The Rev. Sam Buice, interim priest at St. James, heard about this momentous chair count, he said he would like for the 1,000th chair to be carried down the aisle at St. James behind the offering plate during a Sunday service. The chair will be blessed. This will happen on Sunday, July 30, 2023; at both the 8am and 10:30 am services. Since the 1,000th chair is an adult size, it will take two individuals to carry it.
John is not stopping. The school in Clarkston wants 29 chairs. He has painted three so far. Twenty-six to go.
