Ellie's Story. The Courage of an 8 year old cancer survivor in Wayland, MA.

I very much believe in the power of design and architecture as media to markedly better quality of life.

This is a beautiful example of such.

An incredible inspiration to us is a young lady named Ellie who is seven years old and has battled Cancer during Covid. She has a younger sister named Annie and a wonderful family and community based in Wayland.

NEDC and the Room to Dream Foundation teamed up to design and remodel Ellie and Annie's rooms. This was meant as a beautiful Architectural Design Build gift to uplift and help Ellie and her family--but was delayed two years throughout Covid.

This weekend we made it a reality, with NEDC, our trade partners and the Room to Dream Foundation working throughout the weekend.

The reveal was Sunday afternoon at 4pm in Wayland, MA.

It was extremely touching and the smiles say it all.

Both are beautiful, courageous young women with exceptional and loving parents. They are fighting a fight together for life and future.

Ellie has undergone a two-year treatment plan for acute lymphoblastic leukemia at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Jimmy Fund Clinic at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Ellie is supported in this fight by the love of her younger sister Annie and her wonderful parents Leah and Doug Levine of Wayland, MA. Touched by her spirit, the community of Wayland and individuals around the world have rallied to support Ellie and her family, with hundreds of individuals from around the world reaching out to support Ellie’s GoFundMe campaign. Close family and friends have formed the Ellie Levine Love Circle community around which the community has rallied to assist the family.

The Room to Dream Foundation committed to redesign and remodel Ellie and Annie’s room exactly as they would like it.

Ellie and Annie’s new connecting rooms now feature:

• Built in Bookshelves doubling as a ladder to the top of a bunk bed
• A swinging chair suspended from the ceiling
• A trap door between Ellie and Annie’s room, allowing them to be connected
• A new layout allowing for easier access and an overall design which uplifts.

The Levine family had the following to say:

This is fantastic!! We are so grateful for this opportunity and the girls are absolutely thrilled by the news! Dave, we very much look forward to meeting and working with you. Ellie has a lot of ideas to share - we have been repeatedly telling her that her room isn't suited for monkey bars in the ceiling, but it will be good to hear it from an expert!”

See Ellie's reaction here:

This is NEDC’s fifth project lead with the Room to Dream Foundation.

Local media:

Love,

David & the RTD and NEDC Teams