Our Amazing Model Melanie

Shortly after I started our local retail mattress store five years ago, I placed a help wanted ad for someone to work part-time. Among the resumes I received was one from Melanie Perl, and we set up an interview.

Because we needed someone to cover most Saturdays, the schedule didn’t work out for Melanie (she liked to spend her Saturdays hiking and volunteering in Shenandoah National Park)…but we also needed a model for our mattress ads. We had gotten tired of seeing generic blondes in ads, and we wanted an attractive woman who had a nice smile and was pleasant to work with. I had never hired a model, and I didn’t know where to start. After talking with Melanie, I said, “I know it didn’t work out for regular work with us, but you have a great smile. Have you ever done any modeling?” Melanie said, “No, but I’d be willing to try.” So we two amateurs began to work together.

We were and still are ecstatic about working with Melanie. Over the years we have probably had 10 photo shoots or so, and Melanie has always cheerfully helped us out. In fact, among the photographers and videographers, everyone has commented how fortunate we are to work with such a pleasant and agreeable model. You know, it’s not easy to smile for an hour and a half.

Melanie is an avid hiker. She took a very adventurous journey around the country for a few months during the summer. In her shoes I might have some anxiety traveling around the country by myself, and hiking alone without a dog or some means of self defense. Melanie just isn’t wired that way. She feels everyone is her friend and can be trusted. She stayed mostly in our national parks and met kind people everywhere she went. I first met Melanie a few days after she returned from that trip, and I could sense in her the general goodness in the hearts of the American people.

For her regular job, Melanie was very successful representing a local Virginia vineyard. Over the course of a few years, she had more locations selling her wine than any other Virginia vintage. She’s also a proud mother of three, and you’d be fortunate to have any of her children as friends. Melanie is good at whatever she undertakes.

...and she is very flexible! When she said she could do a back bend, I asked her to show me. When I saw the kind of bend she was doing (going from a standing position into Chakrasana--the wheel) without warming up, I told her to stop because I didn’t want her to hurt herself. I wasn’t thinking about moving into Chakrasana cold!

You may never have the opportunity to meet Melanie, but we are very happy and grateful to have her image grace our print, web, and television media. Thank you, Melanie.