Reading the newspaper changed Barbara Roth’s life. It was an article that appeared in the Beacon about Waubonsie Valley High School Family and Consumer Science department supporting a room for Special Spaces.
Special Spaces is a group of volunteers who create bedroom makeovers for children with life threatening illnesses. Roth, who owns a custom window treatment business, believed this was a perfect opportunity to share her talents.
“I thought this was a way I could easily help out” says Roth, of Aurora. The article included contact information for Special Spaces and Roth participated in her first makeover later that year.
The bedroom makeovers are made possible by the generosity of sponsors like Waubonsie Valley and the help of 10 to 15 volunteers. “Depending on the sponsor, we may have shifts of up to 80 volunteers,” says Roth.
Families are referred to Special Spaces by hospitals, friends or another family who has been blessed with a makeover for their child. The makeover process starts with an interview with the child and her family. Together, they determine how to make the room functional for the child’s medical needs as well as find a theme for the room to express the child’s interests.
A room makeover for four year old Ella Casten included a place to store her medical equipment during the day, when it wasn’t in use. “We wanted to make her room look less like a hospital room,” says Ella’s mother, Lindsay of Naperville.
Roth, who creates all the fabric projects for the makeover, attends the meetings with the family to take notes and measure for curtains, bedskirts and other sewing projects. She then goes home to plan her part of the makeover, check her supplies and determine what needs to be ordered.
“I always bring a big bag of supplies on the day of the makeover just in case,” says Roth. Although Roth may do some prep work at home, the majority of the work is done at the family’s home on the day of the makeover.
Another volunteer, Naperville resident Carol Scogna, also attends the initial interview with the family. “Attending the meetings with the family makes it more personal for me, but it can be really emotional,” says Scogna.
Scogna has been working with Special Spaces since the Chicagoland chapter opened, almost two years ago. Her primary job is to gather, organize and store the supplies necessary for each makeover. The preliminary work can take up to 6 to 8 weeks, although the makeover takes place in less than 12 hours. On the day of the makeover, Scogna is the go-to girl to answer questions and fill in where needed.
Like the TV show, “Extreme Home Makeover”, the family leaves the house while Special Spaces does their magic. Crews of volunteers come in to disassemble the old room, build new furniture, paint, sew and decorate the vision of the child’s dreams. The crew often takes over the house, looking for an unused space to work.
“We have stuff everywhere, but when the family comes home, it looks like we were never even there,” says Roth, who often sets up her sewing machine on a card table and spreads her fabric out on the floor.
The reveal is the most exciting part of the day for both the family and the volunteers. “It was so much more incredible than we thought it would be,” says Lindsay Casten of her daughter’s reveal. Not only did the makeover include storage for the medical equipment, but the volunteers presented gifts to Ella and her siblings. “Special Spaces went above and beyond,” says Casten. “We are lucky to have crossed paths with them.”
