Ethan’s new v v v V ROOM! - Cancer-fighting kid gets bedroom makeover
Although he was feeling a little under the weather, a smile spread across little Ethan Delaske's face as he walked into his newly renovated bedroom, Sunday morning, October 20.
Of course, the ride-in yellow Lamborghini parked in the corner caught the car-loving three-year-old's attention first.
Then, it was the new bookshelf that looks like a gas pump.
Then, it was the new television on his chrome-covered dresser.
Then, it was the new reading nook stocked with books about cars and trucks.
His parents, Seth Hollermann and Nicole Delaske, noticed the new carpet, big bed, and hand-painted mural.
"It's amazing," Delaske stated after walking into the renovated room. "I couldn't be any happier with it."
Ethan, who is almost a year into fighting stage-four metastatic neuroblastoma, was selected to receive a bedroom makeover from My Happy Place of Mason City, Iowa, a non-profit organization that works to provide sick children with a happy and safe place to heal.
"We did our first room makeover in 2013," explained My Happy Place founder Lisa Tan, who organized Ethan's bedroom project. "Most of the rooms we've done are in Iowa, but we did a room for a child in Mankato last year and the community support was phenomenal."
The success of the Mankato project led the nonprofit to seek more nominations for bedroom makeovers in Minnesota.
"Ideally, we'd love to have someone step forward and start a My Happy Place here," stated Tan. "We'd love to see this mission grow and include more people, give more kids who are dealing with illnesses a happy place of their own."
According to Tan, Ethan's nomination was selected because a bedroom makeover could...
To see more on this story pick up the October 24, 2019 print editions of the Life or Enterprise papers.