Providing dream bedrooms for children with life-threatening medical illnesses is the mission of Special Spaces, according to Shari Caruso, director, Special Spaces Cleveland, and Katie Yeager, both members of the Rotary Club of Lakewood and Rocky River.
The Rotary club has named Special Spaces the recipient of funding from the club’s annual golf outing held on August 28.
Since 2004, Special Spaces has been "Changing Children’s Lives One Bedroom at a Time." The non-profit provides the bedrooms with no cost to the families due to the generosity of its donors. Funding comes from individuals, corporations, foundations and grants.
Special Spaces Cleveland will complete its first bedroom make over on November 12. The room is being done for Vincent Gonzalez, an eight-year-old who suffers from cystic fibrosis and requires numerous breathing treatments each day. Vincent also has sensory issues that cause him to not experience pain. He recently broke his finger and didn’t even realize it until his parents noticed its odd appearance.
Vincent’s dream room will include a rock climbing wall that can be used to reach his new loft bed, being built by Mark Bacon. Under the loft bed will be a cozy, relaxing place where he can sit to receive his breathing treatments. In spite of his health issues, Vincent is very active so will are also adding a pegboard climbing wall and a pull up bar.
Vincent loves BMX bikes so that will be major theme of his room. His ceiling fan is being transformed using bike gears, stickers and an actual BMX tire. A clock is also being made out of bike gears so he can keep time while receiving his treatments.
PictureTakers, located in Westlake, spent a great deal of time shooting pictures of Vincent on his own personal BMX bike and scooter. Lenore Kovac Tindade, the owner of PictureTakers, is creating a large slick of one of those photos, complete with a graffiti wall behind him, to cover a portion of one of the walls. She has also created an amazing collage of other photos of him on his bike and scooter.
Vincent is one of four children born to Kaylah and Sam Gonzalez. It became very obvious from the beginning of the project that it would be wrong to do so much for Vincent and not surprise the other siblings. Trevor is five-years-old and loves all sports, especially baseball. A new loft bed has been donated, along with many other wonderful items to surprise him. Eva is just two and loves Moana. She was recently moved to a toddler bed so all new Moana bedding, pictures, table and chairs and much more will great her.
The day of the room makeovers, the Gonzalez family will be sent off at 8:30 a.m. on a surprise trip to Great Wolf Lodge which has generously donated a suite and passes for the water park. The family will return home at 5:30 p.m. for the great room reveal.
"I am blessed to have so many people and businesses helping me make magic for precious children," Shari stated.
Vincent’s room could not happen without the help of these individuals and businesses: Beth and Danny Anderson, Beth Adams, Mark and Cindy Bacon, Lauren Barbour, Sandy Barrow, Chris Brill, Doug Cooper, Matt Daugherty, Tom English, Jenny Fix, Vicki Foster, Jennifer Fredericks, Lindsey Wilber Grdina, Great Wolf Lodge, Kaplan's Furniture, Katelyn Kinyon, Michael Kirallah, Patrick Lange, Lowe’s, Bob and Cheryl Magalen, Kate McCarthy, Manon McGovern, PictureTakers, Harlan Radford, Ashley and James Rainey, Jonathan and Stephanie Ristau, Sylvia Ross, Ashley and Alan Rothstein, Dorothy Saviste, Sherwin-Williams, and Matt Tompkins.
"It isn't too late for you to make a donation or to help," Shari continued. Anyone willing to help in providing a special bedroom for a child, or would like more information, can contact Shari at scaruso@specialspaces.org.