The Newstone family was given a brand new deck thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Rick’s Custom Fencing & Decking.
A project that should’ve only taken one month, ended up taking six. However, the wait ended up being worth it for the Newstone family who were able to get a new deck for their daughter with help from Rick’s Custom Fencing & Decking and Make-A-Wish.
Meghan and Bart Newstone originally planned to take their daughter to Disneyland for her Make-A-Wish, but due to her medical conditions, traveling was out of the question.
The family then came up with the idea to get a new deck built for their daughter, who loves being out in the sun.
“She loves to be outside and we had a deck that wasn’t super small, but it wasn’t very big either. She loved to be out there, but it was completely exposed. There’s no shade trees. There’s nothing, it’s just either sun or pouring down rain,” Meghan said.
The Newstones were told that Make-A-Wish was unable to build the deck due to permit issues. Make-A-Wish noted that they could help with supplies, but can’t work on permitted projects.
The family reached out to a contractor in hopes to pay for the deck alongside with their GoFundMe, but were told that it would cost them $60,000. Make-A-Wish suggested that the Newstones reach out to Rick’s Custom Fencing & Decking for a better price.
The company had previously worked with Make-A-Wish in the past and were open to the opportunity to do it again. Taylor Pawley, the director of marketing for Rick’s Custom Fencing & Decking, was in charge of that project and numerous other projects in their community.
“It was such a positive experience for our employees, for the family and for Make-A-Wish. Everybody got so much out of doing that and it had been such a positive thing, that we kind of just opened up to looking for future projects,” Pawley said.
The Newstones reached out to Rick’s Custom Fencing & Decking to speak to an estimator for a bid on the project. The estimator put them into contact with Pawley, who informed the Newstone family that they would work with Make-A-Wish to build the deck free of charge.
The family was shocked to know that their daughter’s wish was finally going to happen after numerous barriers in the process.
“I was really overwhelmed. I think we were both in tears by that point because we didn’t think it was gonna happen,” Meghan said.
The process of getting a permit for the deck ended up taking six months. Once they were able to get the permit, the deck only took five days to build.
Despite the long wait, the Newstone family loved how the deck turned out and enjoyed seeing the smile on their daughter’s face.
“It is her favorite (area) in the house. It really is. It couldn’t have been a better wish,” Meghan said.