Green Chair Project fundraiser showcases design, supports Wake County families

The Green Chair Project turned its annual Curated for a Cause fundraiser into a public display of design, community and direct help for Wake County families in crisis.

The Raleigh-based nonprofit opened its headquarters to visitors through Saturday, April 18, where 11 area interior designers created themed rooms that guests could walk through. The event began with a special pre-party Wednesday night and was built to feel less like a closed-door gala than a community gathering around a pressing local need.

That need is simple and urgent: The Green Chair Project says its mission is to help ensure that every child in need has access to a bed. In a county where housing costs and instability continue to squeeze families, the organization’s work points to a problem that sits below the radar of many public debates but affects daily life in the most basic way. A child without a bed is a child without a stable place to sleep, rest or recover.

CBS 17 served as a media sponsor, and anchor Bill Young emceed the fundraiser for the third straight year. His return gave the event a familiar public face, even as the focus stayed on the nonprofit’s mission and the designers’ work. The mix of local media, donors, visitors and design professionals turned the fundraiser into something broader than a single-night appeal for cash.

The format also helped connect Raleigh’s creative scene with hands-on service work. Instead of relying on speeches and silent auctions alone, Curated for a Cause invited the public into staged rooms that made the fundraiser tangible. Visitors could see the work of local designers while also seeing how that creativity was tied to a nonprofit that addresses a household need many families cannot meet on their own.

For Wake County, that makes the event more than a showcase of style. It is a reminder that behind the polished rooms and public-facing fundraiser is a local organization focused on one of the most fundamental markers of stability: a bed for a child.