Special Spaces is a nonprofit and community-building club of students that raises thousands of dollars each year to help create a bedroom makeover for children with cancer. 

Central’s club is part of a national nonprofit organization based out of Nashville that made over 1,400 bedrooms. Central’s club was started in 2017 by Central graduate Sam Welch. Since then, the club has raised enough to complete six rooms.

“In order for us to do a makeover. We as a club have to raise $5,000,” club sponsor Georganne Gabrielli said.

Currently, the club is about $200 short of reaching its goal in order to sponsor a new room. When enough money has been raised, the club is assigned a child in the Chicagoland area by the Special Spaces Illinois chapter.

The money is raised through school and community-based fundraisers, such as when the club sold gold t-shirts during homecoming week to raise awareness for pediatric cancer. They have also raised money by selling the concessions at football games and have even partnered up with the park district to sell Naperville T-Shirts on the weekends.

Once the club has been assigned their sponsored child, the Illinois Special Spaces chapter finds qualified community members to help design the bedrooms based on the child’s interests.

The most dedicated club members then assist in the manual labor part of the makeover, club president Kayleigh Dollear said. 

Since the club has around 30 students and only 10 get to attend the makeover, the participants are decided by a point system the club has created in order to track each member’s involvement in club activities. 

“By attending a meeting, you automatically get a point, but if you sign up to sell wristbands in the cafeteria, or you were part of the group that did the homecoming decoration, you earn additional points. Our top 10 point earners will be the ones that get to go to the first makeover,” Gabrielli said.

There are also other ways to be involved with Special Spaces outside of Naperville Central.

Dollear is involved in the Special Spaces Junior Board. This board is open to the entire community and helps members with the budgeting side of being involved in the club.

“The junior board helps teach leadership, responsibility and marketing,” Dollear said. 

To the people involved, Special Spaces is much more than a club according to Gabrielli.

“It has been very emotional and satisfying,” Gabrielli said. “You just see how much it means not only to the child but also to the family, for their child to have a safe, comfortable, welcoming spot for them when they come home from chemotherapy.” 

Special Spaces gives community members a way to dedicate some of their skills to help those less fortunate. The nonprofit not only has long-lasting benefits for the families involved but for those donating their time.