Wish granted: 3-year-old’s Disney-themed playhouse

Three-year-old Edith Alberty was allowed one wish, and it was delivered in a way no one could have expected: By crane.

On Friday afternoon, her Sioux Falls backyard became the new home of a Frozen themed playhouse, thanks to dozens of businesses coming together.

Edith was diagnosed with a congenital heart disease, allowing her to qualify for a wish through Make-A-Wish South Dakota & Montana and making the resulting Edith’s Heart House especially significant.

A wish journey starts with a welcome call that enables Make-A-Wish to get to know and create a relationship with the wish recipient. 

“When people qualify for Make-A-Wish, they get a very unique and very personal experience with how their journey goes,” said Joe Evenson, senior director of program services for Make-A-Wish South Dakota & Montana. “We try to custom make it very detailed towards who the kids are that we serve.”

Bringing creativity and imagination to life is really what the wish journey is all about, he said. 

“The cool thing that we got to do was work with a three-year-old girl who has got a really big personality, is very creative and has a wonderful imagination,” said Evenson. “We wanted to take all of that, harness it and bring it to a group that could really bring it to life.”

It was pretty evident that Edith wanted to have something at home that she could play in, so that is when they started discussing a playhouse, he said.

In conjunction with Make-A-Wish, the Home Builders Association of the Sioux Empire worked closely with Edith to ensure that her dreams became a reality.

“Every little detail from the color to the structure to the inside to the slide, you name it, was really in detail what we got from her,” Evenson said.

More than 20 local businesses and vendors contributed to this wish.

“We are a very community based organization that works with kids across all of our two states, South Dakota and Montana, and whatever their wish is, we want to work as local as possible and really create a community experience,” Evenson said.

Russ Pies, general manager of Builders First Source, was contacted this past winter about Edith’s wish. Having worked with Make-A-Wish in the past, he wanted to get as many people involved as he could, he said.

“After Joe sent me the wish from Edith, I asked the Home Builders Association of the Sioux Empire if they could help in getting it built,” Pies said. “The Home Builders Association got more than 40 volunteers to help build it, so we donated the material and they handled the building of the playhouse.”

Wanting to make the reveal of the playhouse unique and special for Edith, the construction of the playhouse was conducted off site, and they planned on moving it onsite on the day of the reveal.

“The Home Builders Association had a member of Northwest Concrete Cutting and Crane Service that said they would volunteer to crane the playhouse for us on the morning of the reveal,” Pies said.

Tom Jarding of Jarding Construction, board president for the Home Builders Association and project coordinator for the build, noted that the crane was a necessary means for transporting the playhouse.

“We coordinated delivery of the playhouse with Friessen Construction and Northwest Corp was willing to help us out by craning the playhouse into the back yard,” Jarding said. “We had a concrete pad poured in Edith’s backyard for the playhouse to sit on [because the playhouse didn’t have a floor under it.]”

On Friday came the big reveal, as a red carpet led to Edith’s Heart House.

Inside, as hoped for, is a Frozen-themed space that includes a play grocery store and kitchen.

And, of course, there’s plenty of room for Edith’s Frozen friends.

The community collaboration is an added bonus, those involved say.

“When we can serve in this capacity and really work to make a difference and give something to a kid that is going through what we call a critical illness, it is pretty special,” Evenson said. “Especially when it is as community based as this. This one really took an army, and it was very special to get to work with all of these organizations.”

“All in all, it was a great project for the Home Builders Association of the Sioux Empire,” Jarding said. “We are fortunate to be a part of a great organization that has many members who are willing to give of their time, talents and treasures. It is rewarding to be able to come together collectively with our professional peers and be a part of a wonderful cause.”