Yesterday, January 30, IKEA named Kyria Henry the grand prize winner of its ‘Life Improvement Sabbatical Contest.’ After a month-long, online public vote, Ms. Henry has won a year-long sabbatical (worth $100,000) to improve the lives of others through her ‘paws4vets’ program, and over the next year, will share her experience online at www.thelifeimprovementproject.com. Additionally, IKEA is donating $46,844 to Save the Children’s U.S. Programs, $1 for every vote cast in the contest.

IKEA kicked off this unique contest last fall to give one deserving winner the opportunity to pursue their passion of helping others. The contest had nearly 2,000 entrants and more than 46,000 votes were cast by the public for the five deserving finalists, including the winning entry, Ms. Henry’s paws4vets program, which trains and pairs service dogs with veterans needing assistance.

IKEA is also awarding a $1,000 IKEA gift card prize to the four finalists in the contest: LaJuana Moser of ‘bags4kids,’ a program giving personal care products, toys and other necessities to foster children in California; Ralph Johnson a science teacher helping to bring the wonders of science to students in New York communities; Philip Filner, a retired scientist looking to renovate an unused greenhouse to help Baltimore’s Northwestern High School’s students; and Elizabeth Woods of ‘Soul Windows,’ a support group and online community of resources, forums and retreats for others experiencing loss.

In addition to the contest, the national program consists of a series of free Life Improvement Store Seminars for consumers, hosted in IKEA stores across the U.S. and a Life Improvement Co-Worker Challenge to provide $10,000 each to support five winning community projects suggested by teams of IKEA employees (co-workers) across the country. This challenge gave IKEA co-workers the opportunity to win additional funding and support for a local charitable organization/cause of their choice.