Hagadone Directories helps TESH

COEUR d'ALENE - Jim Hail sees a big connection between the building renovation project taking place at TESH Inc. this week, and the services the nonprofit has been providing its North Idaho clients for more than 30 years.

"I saw the makeover as a transition for the building, just like TESH provides a transition for people with disabilities," said Hail, co-owner and president of Hagadone Directories, Inc.

Local architects, contractors and volunteers are giving the TESH facility a facelift, at no cost to the organization. The project is being coordinated by Spokane Fox28's "House to Home" television team, with cameras rolling every step of the way. Footage of the project will air in October.

Hail's company is a major sponsor of the project, and gave the first cash donation of $10,000.

"That gave us the momentum and credibility to go forward and recruit other sponsors and supporters," said TESH CEO Russ Doumas.

Help from Hagadone Directories did not come as a big surprise to Doumas.

Hail was a TESH volunteer board member for a dozen years, and Tami Eberhard, his company's operations manager, spent eight of those years on the board with Hail.

"There have been a lot of small projects here through the years," Eberhard said.

With state and federal funding drying up, financing for building improvements at TESH is hard to come by.

"They've all been very small, very scattered, and kind of pieced together," she said. "To see this one, it's huge. The most exciting part to me is the covered walkways."

The concrete, box-style commercial building is being transformed into a Northwestern timber style facility with a covered walkway, new siding, landscape, trees to line the property and a fence. The client drop-off and pick-up area is being redesigned.

"The people at TESH. That's what this is about," Hail said. "If it improves their (the clients) lot in life as they go through the transition here at TESH, then that's a good thing for them."

The organization provides vocational rehabilitation, independent living skills training, and residential support for people with disabilities. The goal is to help them become as independent and involved in the community as possible.

The building makeover will be good for the people who work at TESH as well, Hail said. It will give them a sense of pride.

"This staff is as hard-working a group of people as I've ever been acquainted with. They put everything into it, their hearts," he said. "They care about the people they serve, and they're certainly not doing it for the money."

Hagadone Directories has a long-time employee, who has been with the company since Hail founded it in the 1980s, who is a TESH graduate.

"So we know good and well the role that TESH plays in making people active and participatory members in the community. They really make a difference in peoples' lives," Hail said.