In the midst of the sweltering August heat (90+degrees), on the third floor of a Midlothian home, a group a of local home stagers, realtors and designers from Richmond, VA painted, assembled, fluffed and hung to design a sanctuary for Lauren Cherry, a local 7-year-old pediatric cancer patient and her family.
On August 18 and 19, the RESA Richmond Chapter, a local network of real estate stagers and designers, partnered with the Roc Solid Foundation, a Chesapeake-based nonprofit foundation, to support its mission to “build hope for children with cancer by offering a chance to temporarily escape from the pressures of doctors and treatments and do what they do best — play.”
The Roc Solid Foundation’s “Play It Forward” initiative builds swing sets and re-designs playrooms for pediatric cancer patients. Lauren was the recipient of this day’s reveal. Lauren was diagnosed at age three with a brain tumor called pineoblastoma (PNET) on July 12, 2013 and relapsed May 2015.
“She (Lauren) is now two years into her fight, and she is thriving. She is awesome. She is going back to school. She is getting back to the normal flow of life,” said Megan DeHond, program coordinator for the Roc Solid Foundation.
“Terminally ill children experience an adult world, our goal was to fulfill Lauren’s wish of a room that she and her siblings can be creative, spend family time and just be a kid.”
– Johnathan Miller, President of the RESA Richmond Chapter.
Lauren’s parents said the new “Kid Zone” will be a perfect room for Lauren and her siblings to retreat with their friends in the future.
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