09/19/12 Debra Lee Venti, 1985 Plymouth High School graduate, couldn’t be more pleased than to have chairs at the Administration Offices of the Plymouth Schools manufactured by the North Carolina company where she is a designer. The chairs are identical to those shown during NBC interviews at both the Winter Olympics in Canada and the Summer Olympics in London.
The Lodi chairs were made by Lazar Industries based in Siver City, NC and Los Angles, CA. To their credit, Lazar Industries offers an Earth Design Collection that is consists of materials that are either recycled, natural or a combination and made only in the United States.
Venti made a trip to Plymouth on Tuesday to greet her former teacher and now Plymouth Schools Superintendent Dan Tyree and also Olympian Morgan Uceny.
Venti said the four chairs used in Canada were completed within weeks. The chairs that normally take four weeks to manufacture were completed for the Summer Olympics in only five hours.
Venti said the chairs for the Plymouth Schools could have been made with 500-600 different fabrics, but Tyree wanted them to match the Olympic chairs.
Venti said she was a freshman at PHS when she first had Tyree as a teacher. She said her experiences in his theater and drama classes along with participating in band “opened the world” for her.
In addition to working with Lazar Industries, Venti owns her own book store, coffee shop and gift shop and has a published book entitled “The Night After Christmas”. She resides in Lenoir, North Carolina, located in the Blue Ridge foothills.
Pictures of the United States Girl’s Olympic team being interviewed while sitting on the Lodi chairs can be seen on Facebook at NBC Olympic Chairs.
Carol Anders Correspondent
