A Happy Heart Sensory Room Makeover
She made her way around her room navigating with her hands, joyfully clicking, tapping, spinning and turning things on and off as she investigated her brand sparkling new sensory room. As we watched her twirl about and get excited to explore and dance to the tunes coming from her new disco light our hearts warmed.
We strive to bring happiness to the hearts of children just like Rhylee, kids in NB who are facing the most unfair health battles. The truth is though, that happiness is contagious and our hearts were flooded with the most pure genuine joy and awe as we watched Rhylee forget about her struggles and live fully in the moment overcome with happiness.
Rhylee’s Health Battles
Rhylee was born with Fraser Syndrome, a genetic mutation to the FRAS1 gene; which has had a significant impact on her development. She also has cryptophthalmos, which means the skin over her eyes is continuous, without formation of eyelids. She is blind but demonstrates light perception so she really enjoyed her new disco light dancing across the room creating flashes of light that she could see. In addition to being blind, she also has bilateral hearing loss, fused vocal cords and only one kidney. In her short 7 years here she’s already had over 30 surgeries and still wakes up smiling most days!
While Rhylee faces many challenges in her life, she is an inquisitive and physically active child who according to her teacher Beth Button, is “full of spunk” and we were honoured to see that spunk come alive as she clapped for joy and danced about. Beth, who submitted the application on Rhylee’s behalf was able to join us for the makeover reveal and was overwhelmed by the “insane amount of joy” this Happy Heart Room Makeover brought Rhylee and her whole family.
Here’s what Rhylee’s mom said about their Happy Heart Experience!
“Getting a Happy Heart Room Makeover has been so exciting for Rhylee. She had just gone for surgery 2 weeks before her room was revealed. She hadn’t been her usual happy self because healing from this surgery was pretty painful. The smile on her face says it all. This was exactly the boost she needed…
What we love most is not any particular item in her room, but rather that her room has already become her happy place. She can just be a kid in this room and forget, even for a little while, about the struggles she faces everyday.” Melissa Callaghan
We hope you’ve enjoyed this Happy Heart news update!! Become a Happy Heart Maker now by donating to The Braedon Foundation!
XO Tiffany Agnew,
Founder, Board President & Braedon’s Mom
It takes a Community: Meet our Happy Heart Makers
We pour ourselves into every room we do but it takes an entire team of Super Hero Happy Heart Makers to bring everything together!
We thank Rhylee’s dad Kevin for spending 3 straight evenings doing the crack filling for us.
Special shout out to Kevin Eagles Painting who did the beautiful paint job. This is the third room Kevin has graciously volunteered his time to help with and he even came to our rescue with another room too when we struggled to cover up some maker. Thank you!
We couldn’t have done it without Harvey Jesso from Maritime Carpentry. Harvey volunteered his time to hang up our swing, make and install shelving in the closet and he even helped us hang everything in the room so we could make sure it was extra sturdy for Rhylee to explore. This is the second room Harvey has helped with and now we’re left wondering how we could clone him for all future rooms. Seriously you guys, he is just AWESOME. Huge thanks to you Harvey.
Tyler Pace from Deep Roots Woodworking volunteered his time to make two of the most important pieces in this room, our lego and magnet board and our giant wall sized busy board. Check out his page to order. Many thanks to our new friend; these pieces make the room. ❤
We’re sending some love and thanks to Krista Powers from Bespoke Art in Mocton who made and donated a beautiful tactile work of art. We’re so grateful, thank you.
And we can’t forget Kings Valley Church!! If you haven’t heart of King Valley’s Love week you need to check it out. They’ve given over $200,000 since it started and this were blessed to be chosen for their Love Week and they sponsored this entire room!! To everyone at Kings Valley Church thank you for being Happy Heart Makers and working to bring joy to our entire community.
Special helper shout out! Thank you David Agnew, James Agnew, Beth Button, Aleisha Long & Aaron Albert who all helped with projects, and logistics.
Happy Heart Room Specialists
Tiffany Agnew & Loretta Landry
The Braedon Foundation 