Jenna’s Tree House

A pirate and her crew scanning the seas for a ship to plunder. A group of scientists observing the hard-working honeybee. A brave fireman rescuing an animal from a branch. A child can be anything she can imagine, far above the back yard in her tree house.

Jenna, “JJ” to her family, didn’t know much about tree houses until she climbed into the one her friend had. But she knew when she saw it that a tree house was a very special thing, and Jenna had been searching for some time for one special thing to wish for.

Jenna has a life threatening medical condition that has very few upsides, but it did make her eligible to become one of more than 75 Triad children age two-and-one-half to 18-years-old that last year had a wish granted through the Make-A Wish Foundation® of Central and Western NC. When the “Wish Team” first visited her, JJ wasn’t quite sure what to wish for. A precocious and daring five-year-old, she eventually decided that a tricked-out tree house was just the thing. After all, she loved playing in her back yard, and didn’t she always swing just as high as she could go?

Jenna was very thoughtful about wanting her tree house just so. It needed to have a real window so she could look out over her yard, and plenty of room for friends to “camp out.” An adventurer like her had to have a zip line too, so she could swing from the tree house deck as fast as you could say, “Time for Dinner.” There also had to be a way to transport treasures up to her hideaway, so a bucket and pulley system was called for. A matching table and chairs completed the design and are just right for those times when she just wants to sit and dream among the leaves.

“Since 1980, the Make-A-Wish Foundation^® has given hope, strength and joy to children with life-threatening medical conditions. From our humble beginnings with one boy’s wish to be a police officer, we’ve evolved into an organization that grants a child’s wish in the U.S. every 40 minutes,” says Don Timmons, Triad Regional Director of Make-A-Wish^®. “We are happy that we could do this for Jenna and to make it possible, we want to especially thank the following people and companies that made this happen: Chuck Hicks and Carlos Martinez of ICON Custom Builders, Lowes of Winston-Salem, and Chad Danforth of Balfour Beatty Construction of Raleigh.

For more information about the Make-A-Wish Foundation and how to get involved, visit the chapter website at www.ncwish.org or the national site at www.wish.org.