Dexter native, SEMO grad, helped decorate White House for Christmas

With the help of Dexter, Missouri, native Jordan Sandusky � and 124 other volunteers � the White House is decked out for the holidays.

Sandusky, a Southeast Missouri State University graduate, said decorating the White House had been a dream of hers for the last five years.

She graduated from Southeast with a Bachelor of Science in human environmental studies and interior design. Sandusky is a designer for Redwood Construction, a California-based real estate project management company that specializes in interior and exterior renovations, according to a university news release.

There were more than 7,000 applications submitted for this year�s holiday season, she said, and she was surprised to be chosen.

Sandusky volunteered her time during the week of Thanksgiving, with Thanksgiving Day off, of course, she said. And the White House chef provided breakfast and lunch each day of decorating, she said.

�We were all put into teams. I was �Team Jingle� for part of the week, and the other half of the week I was �Team Rudolf,�� she said. �That assigned you to certain areas and certain jobs.�

She said the overall theme of the White House holiday decorations for this year is �American Treasures.�

Sandusky was responsible for decorating the Vermeil Room, Diplomatic Reception Room and the hall of berry topiaries within the White House.

The hall of berry topiaries were �completely created on site, from scratch,� Sandusky said.

�Those berries were hand placed,� she said. �There were thousands and thousands of berries. I was told that we bought out every craft store in the entire country.�

And according to Sandusky, �there are thousands� of decorations required to fully complete the desired look chosen by first lady Melania Trump.

�We had 14,000 red ornaments, and that doesn�t include all the individual rooms that were decorated with different style of d�cor,� she said. �Every room was a different color or theme.�

She said every tree had �hundreds of ornaments and ribbon.�

�I don�t know how many yards of ribbon, but there were boxes and boxes of ribbon, very expensive ribbon that we used on all the trees,� Sandusky said.

Sandusky said she and the other volunteers ran out of lights at one point, and more had to be acquired, since all the tree branches were hand wrapped.

She described the experience as �quite the process.�

�We would start at 6 or 6:30 in the morning, and we would work until 4 or 4:30 every day,� Sandusky said. �It was a lot of fun, though.�

The following Monday after the week of decorating, Sandusky said lunch was hosted by the first lady as a �thank you� for the volunteers� time.

Sandusky said, �I would do it again in a heartbeat. It was absolutely worth it.�

jhartwig@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3632