A 4-year-old Springfield girl who is fighting cancer received a surprise this month. Forty employee volunteers with First Residential Independent Mortgage in Springfield spent one day building a custom playhouse and playset for her and her family. Lexi has lymphocytic Leukemia. She was taken to the company at Kansas Expressway and Bennett in a pink limo with her family where she was told that the play equipment would be coming home with her.
Piper Brintnall is the foundation coordinator with Veterans United Foundation. Veterans United Home Loans is a sister company of First Residential Independent Mortgage.
She said Lexi had no idea she was going to be gifted with the play sets. Lexi has three older brothers, and they were surprised as well.
“It’s really wonderful to just see this moment of normalcy and childhood for kids who have been battling so much for so long in their young lives,” she said.
She said they worked with Virginia-based Roc Solid Foundation, a nonprofit that creates safe places to play for children facing pediatric cancer, to provide the play structures for the family. The foundation had worked with them in Columbia, Missouri last year to build six play sets and six playhouses for children in the mid-Missouri area.
Brintnall said the project was funded through employee donations, and that “an event like this really shows our employees what their foundation dollars go towards and what the power of 1% enhancing lives looks like. It gives them an opportunity to see their dollars in action and to be a part of the life-changing moment that this is.”
Ryan Kluttz, executive director of First Residential, said they challenge employees to donate 1% of their pay each month to the foundation. The money is used to support co-workers during hard times, but also “to bless the community.” The project for Lexi, he said, was a chance for employees “to bless a child that’s going through a really hard time” and to help her family see that they aren’t alone and that they are rooting for Lexi to get well.
Tom Connor, build leader with Roc Solid Foundation, flew into Springfield for the event. He said they partner with around 220 children’s hospitals in the United States who select children to receive playsets, and then they contact the foundation. The foundation then finds a sponsor such as the Veterans United Foundation.
There are six different play sets that they build, based on the need. For example, a child who lives in a townhome with limited space might receive a smaller play set than someone who lives in a home with a yard.
He said children who are fighting cancer can’t go to the public park to play because of their weakened immune systems. “So, it gives them a safe place to go play and also gives a place for mom and dad to know where the other siblings are when they have to focus on Lexi or…the child that has the illness.” There’s nothing better than exercise, according to, and that’s part of why they do what they do.
