A group of Union students spent a weekend at 17 year-old Sherene Fedor’s house in Corinth, working to give her a special retreat during her battle with leukemia.
Fedor’s new bedroom included carpeting, freshly painted blue walls, a closet organization system, a bed with upholstered headboard and a leopard print comforter.
“I’m definitely most proud of the carpeting with extra padding that drowns out all the noise,” said Stacey Burns ’12, project director for Union’s Healing Spaces chapter. “Sherene expressed to us that she has trouble sleeping some times, so we wanted to make the room as peaceful, quiet and comfortable as possible.”
Fedor was nominated to receive the makeover by nurses at Albany Medical Center Hospital.
The Union students met with the teen and her family to find out exactly what she wanted. The group received donations and discounts from many local and national businesses, as well as free interior design help Katherine Brickley of KatsEye Design in Schenectady.
Fedor and her family stayed for free at the Desmond Hotel in Colonie while the renovations were going on at their home. An aspiring culinary student, Fedor also got a cooking lesson from the hotel’s chef, and all of their meals were paid for as part of the donations.
The students are part of the College’s local chapter of Healing Spaces, which provides children around the country with comforting, new bedrooms. Members of several Greek organizations also helped. The student volunteers To raise money to help pay for the renovations, the group did many on-campus fundraisers including the sale of pizza and friendship bracelets.
In addition to Burns, other students who participated were: Laura Lieberman ’12, Madison Lipton ‘12, Elana Lerner ‘13, Zoe Blatt ‘12, Jami Gunzenhauser ‘14, Caroline Friedman ‘14, Melinda Rothman ‘12, Shaunak Champaneria ‘14, Jared Hughes ‘12, Adam Dear ‘14, Brett Taragowski ’14 and Eric Dyer ‘12.