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Community gives Royersford girl safe homecoming

By: Lynn Jusinski

Surely the last thing on the mind of anyone with a sick child is a home renovation.

01/26/2006 - However, this was something that faced Greg Stanfield, father of 2 1/2-year-old Abba Stanfield, when his daughter was slated to come home from the hospital following her bone marrow transplant. Luckily, the community stepped in to make the house suitable for Abba's return.

Abigail Stanfield was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia early last year. Since then, Karen and Greg Stanfield have dealt with long nights at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Abba's sickness from chemotherapy, and the news that Abba's only chance for survival would be a bone marrow transplant.

Abba's 9-year-old sister, Victoria, happened to be a perfect match for the bone marrow donor and didn't hesitate to help her ailing sister. Abba had to undergo chemotherapy to get ready for the transplant, and that's when the Stanfields discovered, on top of everything else, that their Royersford home would not be suitable for Abba's return after the transplant.

That's when "Extreme Makeover: Volunteer Edition," as Greg calls it on the "Friends of Abba" Web site, went into effect. "We weren't sure how we were going to get it all done," Greg said. So friends stepped in to support the Stanfields, as they had done throughout Abba's sickness.

Tory Bright and Grace Litka, who set up the Web site, got in touch with the Charitable Foundation of Home Builders Association of Bucks and Montgomery Counties, located in Horsham, to see if the HBA could help with the renovation. "The request was related to our mission," HBA Executive Vice President Howard Cooper said.
"The foundation - its mission is to help people that have issues with housing," Cooper said.

So the HBA was on board, and within a week agreed to purchase three air purifiers for the Stanfields' home. But Cooper didn't stop there. "It kind of touched a lot of the members," Cooper said of Abba's condition and the predicament the Stanfields were in.
So he looked to HBA members to find a solution to the problem of black mold growing in the Stanfields' bathroom.

That's when he found Brad Grosshanton, manager of REICO installation services. Grosshanton is also a father of six who lives in Limerick, and some of his children attend the same school district as the older Stanfield children, Victoria and James, 6. "I scheduled an appointment with the Stanfields," Grosshanton said.

According to Cooper, the appointment was for an estimate for the repairs that would need to be made to the bathroom. "After they were there and they met the family, they said they wanted to help out as well," Cooper said.

"It was something that is kind of close to all of our hearts - [Abba] being sick and all," Grosshanton said. So a crew headed to the Stanfields' house and went to work for a long weekend. The crew included Grosshanton, Chris Viksne, REICO's in-house installer, Jason Lankford of REICO and Ken Giamo, an independent contractor.

"We pretty much gave them a new bathroom," Grosshanton said.
The crew redid almost everything in the bathroom, including tearing out the tub and a section of wall and coating everything with mildewcide, along with completely redoing the plumbing. Renovations didn't just include the bathroom, however. The Stanfields and a crew of volunteers helped to get the rest of the house ready, as well. "We ripped out all the carpeting, gave it a good cleaning," Greg said

That, along with all of the other work involved in making the house as safe as possible, took a few weeks to complete. "We have a lot of friends out there," Greg said. After everything was completed, Greg said, "We were very grateful. I don't even know how to describe it."

"They were thrilled," Cooper said. "I'm sure it was a major concern off [Greg's] shoulders." And Grosshanton got to see Greg at his happiest - the moment he found out that Abba was coming home.
Grosshanton was out shopping at a home-improvement store the day before Thanksgiving when he saw Greg Stanfield shopping in the same store.

Greg's phone began ringing, Grosshanton said, "and here it turned out is was his wife." And Karen was calling with big news - Abba could come home. According to Grosshanton, Greg said, "We'll finish up here and we'll be right down to get you."

"I guess it was just a little twist of fate," Grosshanton said.
According to Greg, Abba's recovery is right on track, and she has been home since the Monday after Thanksgiving, except for one overnight stay at CHOP.

For more information on Abba Stanfield and the Stanfield family, visit http://abigail.gstanfield.com. For more information on the HBA, go to the Web site at www.hbahomes.com. To contact REICO, call 610-382-1471.

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