Maryland Teen Builds Dollhouse for Girl with Leukemia

While attending the Frederick Fall Miniature Fair at the Holiday Inn in Frederick, Maryland in October, 2008,  teenager Alexandra Burt from Hagerstown, Maryland and her mother, Amanda, purchased a marked down dollhouse kit from vender Grace Shaw of Virtual Dollhouse

Grace had had the Coventry Cottage dollhouse kit, by Greenleaf, for some time and had not sold it on her website (http://www.virtualdollhouse.net). Planning to be a vender at the Frederick Fall Miniature Fair, Grace took the dollhouse with her hoping to find a home for it. Towards the end of the show, she marked it down hoping not to have to transport it back home again.

Alexandra (Alex) & her mother, who had made several previous purchases from Virtual Dollhouse, came back for one last look. Seeing the dollhouse was marked down, Alex asked her mother if they could purchase it for their neighbor, Mackenzie McCarter, a little girl who has Leukemia. (http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mackenziemccarter) Alex assured her mother that she, herself, would build the house for the neighbor's child.

Amanda was thinking, "Great, another kit sitting around my house for six months."  She did help Alex buy the kit though.

In January, Grace received an e-mail from Alex with photos of the finished Coventry Cottage. "She did a wonderful job of building this house," says Grace.

"This is the sort of thing that our teenagers should be honored for." Grace contacted the Helen Sparks, one of our NAME representatives to see if we could put a story about Alex in the Tiny Tattler.

Amanda said that Alex had great fun building the cottage for Mackenzie. She wanted to hang photos on the wall and chose Alice in Wonderland pictures to frame and hang.
She painted all the furnishing that are in the house and it's ready to give to Mackenzie.

Alex gave the completed dollhouse to Mackenzie on January 26, 2009. Little Mackenzie had just had a chemo treatment as was feeling shy so her photos didn't come out as well as we'd hoped. However, her mother said that as soon as Alex and Amanda left, Mackenzie got up from the sofa where she was resting, and raced right over to play with it.

If you would like to help children like Mackenzie, contact http://www.CaringBridge.org

Mackenzie McCarter Receiving the dollhouse

Feeling Shy

Playing with dollhouse & Mom

If you would like to help children like Mackenzie, contact http://www.CaringBridge.org