Carpet! Awards Announced
Carpets are beautiful, versatile products. Presenting and selling them in a correspondingly atmospheric way – that in turn is a highly demanding task. At the Domotex flooring fair, the trade magazine Carpet! (SN-Verlag, Hamburg) rewarded five retailers who mastered this task brilliantly: in different ways, with some very different carpet ranges and in different retail types. Editor-in-chief Tim Steinert presented them with Carpet Stars for their exemplary performances. This year’s award winners are: – Lila Valadan (Lila Valadan, Hamburg), in the category “Exemplary Customer Event”: In her warehouse in Hamburg’s Speicherstadt (a historical warehouse district), she presented her high-quality carpets in a very atmospheric way and thus conveyed the “fascination of carpets” to a wide audience. – Reza Ahstari and Wendy Guns (Ashtari Carpets, Antwerpen), in the category “Exemplary Website”: Their very attractive homepage is reminiscent of an interior decorating blog and awakens the viewer’s curiosity about their exclusive carpet shop. – Möbel Pfister, in the category “Exemplary Carpet Department”. In its particularly successful and well thought-out carpet departments, the Swiss chain store focuses on high quality, professional sales advice and modern presentations. – Roz Rustigian, in the category “Exemplary Rug Specialist Shop”. In her shop Rustigian Rugs in the US state of Rhode Island, she sells high-quality new and antique carpets. Roz Rustigian impresses with her extensive knowledge, her openness to new developments and her social commitment. – Edi Kistler, for his lifetime achievements. Kistler is not only a committed retailer; he also significantly helped to introduce nomadic carpets to Europe, where many people grew to love them for their distinct beauty. Among the well-known “carpet personalities” who delivered the laudatory speeches were: Mohammad Mohammadzadeh (Mohammadzadeh & Sohn), Frank Dornacher (Paulig), Rob Leahy (Fine Rugs of Charleston) and Reza Zollanvari (Zollanvari). From 2018 on, Carpet! magazine presents the Carpet Stars annually at Domotex. With this award for exemplary commitment in the retail trade, the magazine also aims to motivate and inspire other...
Fundraiser For Education Initiative Raises $5000
An autographed copy of Qais Akbar Omar’s critically-acclaimed memoir, A Fort of Nine Towers, brought a $5,000 donation Tuesday night at a fund-raiser for the Initiative to Educate Afghan Women. Within minutes, five more copies of the book generated $1,000 each, with all the proceeds supporting the Initiative which has brought 85 Afghan women to American universities since 2002. Omar who studies at Boston University and was present at the Barrington, Rhode Island, event was “stunned and delighted,” commenting “There is no better investment in the future of Afghanistan than to help Afghan women get an education.” Roz Rustigian the Initiative’s co-chair agreed wholeheartedly noting that “our graduates are already making significant inroads by assuming positions of responsibility in government and private industry. A Fort of Nine Towers, described by The New York Times as “a riveting story of war as seen through a child’s eyes,” chronicles Omar’s early years as he and his family survived the brutal Afghan civil war and the Taliban era that followed without ever losing hope in the...
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