Real estate services firm JLL has teamed with Once Upon a Room, a 12-year-old nonprofit, to transform more than 200 children’s hospital rooms nationwide into personalized, home-like environments to reflect each child’s unique interests and help them feel more at home during their stays. — Courtesy: JLL
By Joshua Burd
JLL employees across the country are lending their support to Once Upon a Room, an inspiring nonprofit that transforms hospital rooms and spaces for children battling serious illnesses.
The real estate services firm last week kicked off its Wave Across America initiative, one that combines a coordinated national volunteer effort with a fundraising campaign to expand the organization’s mission. To that end, hundreds of JLL employee volunteers will transform more than 200 children’s hospital rooms into personalized, home-like environments to reflect each child’s unique interests and help them feel more at home during their stays.
The program will take place in focused, two-hour events across 17 U.S. cities including New York, Chicago, Miami, Dallas, Denver and Los Angeles.
“A personalized space is essential for a child’s emotional wellbeing and healing process, replacing fear with comfort and clinical sterility with a sense of home,” said Jenny Hull, co-founder of Once Upon a Room. “With the launch of our ‘Wave Across America’ initiative, JLL is doing more than just decorating rooms — they are deploying volunteers to deliver hope on a national scale. Their support is transformative for our organization and, most importantly, for the hundreds of children who will feel that wave of kindness.”
Hull and her daughter, Josie, launched Once Upon a Room in 2014 based on their own harrowing but inspiring experience. This year, Josie and her twin sister, Teresa, celebrate their 25th birthday — an extraordinary milestone, as they are among the few people in the world to be successfully separated after being born conjoined at the head.
It was Josie’s own experience in the hospital growing up that gave her the idea for the nonprofit at just 12 years old, according to a news release. Witnessing the power of a personalized space to bring comfort and a sense of identity, she and her mother were inspired to bring that same gift to other children battling serious illnesses.
According to JLL, the “Wave Across America” name symbolizes a wave of kindness spreading across the country.
“At JLL, we believe in the power of our people to shape a better world, and that starts in the communities where we live and work,” said Charlie Smith, executive managing director and Los Angeles broker lead at JLL. “When Associate Ally Doherty brought the idea of expanding this initiative beyond LA to leadership, we knew we had to support her vision to spearhead this national expansion. We are proud to work to support an incredible organization like Once Upon a Room to launch the ‘Wave Across America’ initiative, and I am immensely proud that our people are leading this effort with both their time and fundraising to support this beautiful mission.”
