CLEVELAND, Ohio – A very lucky little girl is getting the bedroom makeover of her dreams.
Lanecia Smith, of Cleveland, has always loved the circus, and now she’ll have one of her very own to sleep in every night thanks to the Ringling Brothers and Special Spaces.
The 10-year-old has sickle-cell and has had to undergo a lot of treatments.
“They spend all this time in the hospital and in treatment centers and surrounded by things dealing with treatment, and this is a way for them to come home and have a space to themselves and it’s a special space,” said Dan DiPietro-James from Feld Entertainment.
He said they had plenty of help from local volunteers, including some employees from the “Q” Arena and a few members of the Cleveland Gladiators.
Lanecia wasn’t home during any of the remodeling. She spent the day getting pampered. She went out to lunch with her grandma and sister, and then got her face painted like a clown, by a clown from the circus.
While that was happening, crews were hard at work. They painted her room, put in new furniture and decorated, too.
When they were done, it was time for the big reveal. Lanecia showed up in a limo and was escorted into her home with the Ring Master.
“They did a good job,” she said with a big smile on her face.
Her grandma, Carol Byers, has been taking care of Lanecia since she was three days old and said this means so much to her.
“She’s been through a lot of pain crisis. She’s has three surgeries and she just recently had a surgery where she had her gallbladder removed, but she’s a trooper,” she said.
The Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus is in town at the “Q” Arena all week long.
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