A girl's wish comes true in Franklin

FRANKLIN — Romping outside in her sun dress and backpack, eight-year-old Beatrice Linder is a happy child enjoying summer vacation. Her enthusiasm is as ineffable as her smile, and now she has something extraordinary to make her joyful — and grateful.

Her longtime wish has come true.

In her backyard is an elaborate, custom designed play set, complete with towers, a cat walk, two slides, a ramp and ladders, a three swings and a play house at ground level — constructed by Stafford Oil and Propane, with help from donors, volunteers and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

“This is my clubhouse,” says Beatrice, giving a visitor a tour. Her eyes glow with amazement at the structure that has emerged over the course of two work days in her backyard. “I wanted three or two levels and I got two levels, and a twisting slide, swings with a bridge you could go across, and towers with flags on the top. I wanted a steering wheel and a telescope, and a ramp with another slide.” All the features on her checklist are there.

I ask her if it’s like having her own amusement park. “It’s not an amusement park,” she says proudly. “It’s a play set.”

Beatrice, the youngest of six children, was born with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a progressive and life-threatening illness that often robs her energy, strength and endurance, affecting nearly every system in her body and frequently making it impossible to fully enjoy the activities of other children. The backpack perched on her shoulders is there for medical reasons.

“Anything that requires endurance and keeping up with other kids is very hard for her,” said her mother, Rachel Linder. “She has chronic joint pain and fatigue. Swinging is the thing she has loved forever. It’s something she loves that doesn’t exhaust her. She can go down the slides then run and go back and swing and sit in the little chair” in her new clubhouse.

Beatrice said her favorite activities now are swinging with her siblings and playing game where everyone has to stay above ground.

She is not the only recipient of joy and togetherness.

In the wake of COVID’s wide-ranging effects on community life, Stafford Oil and Propane wanted to find a way to give back and answer a need. The company’s accountant and human resource director, Allison Daly, spotted an advertisement for Make-A-Wish, and Stafford reached out to the New Hampshire representative to find a desire it could fill. Beatrice’s play set was on the Make-A-Wish roster, after a family friend of the Linders’ nominated the little girl.

Stafford put her story and dream on their website for customers, vendors, community donors and employees to see, and within six months amassed $15,000 to purchase the design and materials. Some Stafford employees made financial contributions, but their most valuable help was their donated labor — a gift that went both ways. On May 13, the hottest day of the year so far, and June 2, which was unseasonably cold, a crew of roughly 10 Stafford workers assembled the play set from materials delivered to Beatrice’s backyard.

Matthew Bodge, a senior technician and estimator, considers himself an amateur and a hobbyist. “It seemed like a good cause and I enjoy working with wood, and they asked," said Bodge. Although sometimes the pieces were confusing, “It was fun, and it was teamwork trying to figure it out.”

“It’s just a good cause and if there was anything to do, I’d like to pitch in,” said Derek Hovey, another Stafford mechanic who volunteered. “It made me feel great after meeting the family and everyone. It was a good day.”

“The kids were out here working with them,” said Nikki Lyons Lahey, community outreach director of Make-A-Wish New Hampshire, which each year helps to bring 90 to 95 dreams to fruition for critically ill children in the Granite State. Statewide, over 110 youngsters are diagnosed annually with qualifying, critical medical conditions. Each year, roughly 200,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a rare condition which targets connective tissue, primarily the skin, joints, and blood vessel walls, according to the Mayo Clinic.

“Just the smile on her face. It brought us a lot of joy to see how happy she is, and to see her brothers and sisters playing with her,” said Curtis Stafford, president of Stafford Oil and Propane. “Just watching Beatrice swing up there as high as possible. She’s also been brave trying to overcome challenges life has put before her. We’re grateful to all the people who helped us build and contributed to make this possible.”

It was a cause that rallied widespread support, including from the family-owned company’s customers, suppliers, vendors and insurance companies, and from two Concord businesses: Dirt Doctors Site One, which donated $3,500 worth of Astroturf, which was then prepped and installed by Outside Unlimited.

On Tuesday, Daly, who coordinated the project, surveyed the finished product and took pictures of the play set in action. 

“I love seeing them enjoy it,” she said. “We were working around kids playing on it as we put the pieces together.”