BANGOR, Maine — Abby MacDonald dropped her school backpack on the edge of her lawn Monday afternoon and took off running with her friend Cricket Eastman toward a new structure in the side yard — a swing set with its own clubhouse.
“It’s so cool,” one of the girls screamed as the 10-year-olds climbed the ladder leading to the small clubhouse balcony featuring a forest green slide.
To look at MacDonald, you would never know that she has Tracheobronchomalacia, a rare, congenital weakening of the airway walls that causes her to tire easily and heal slowly.
“Abby looks like every other 10-year-old. That is part of the challenge for her,” her mother, Linda MacDonald, said Monday standing in her yard as the girls played on the new swing set provided by the Dream Factory of Maine.
“The difference is her body works extra hard to breathe and function properly, leaving her exhausted,” MacDonald wrote in a letter to the Dream Factory, which grants the dreams of critically ill youngsters between the ages of 3 and 18. “She yawns frequently and is often mistaken for being bored or rude when in fact it is her body needing more oxygen. Migraines creep in after cardiovascular activity, and her ability to participate in daily activities is stopped during these attacks. She takes daily medicine.”
The Dream Factory was organized in 1980 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and has grown into 38 chapters across the country, all run by volunteers. There is a chapter in Portland and another Maine chapter in York County.
“Abby is dream No. 182,” said volunteer Kelley Skillin-Smith, who is a real estate agent by trade from the Portland chapter of the organization. “We have nine other dreams in the hopper.”
Over the years, Dream Factory has helped a Brewer youngster record a music CD, sent a young Kennebunkport man and his family to the Olympics, installed swimming pools, built playgrounds and sent children and their families from all over the state to Disney World.
The two Maine chapters together have granted more than 300 “dreams” since 1987.
“We are an all-volunteer organization at the chapter level, so over 85 [percent] of the funds we raise stay in Maine to fulfill the wishes of Maine children,” the group’s website states.
Skillin-Smith said as part of the application for Dream Factory, Abby McDonald’s mother sent in a copy of a letter Abby wrote to the new residents at her former address, where her much-loved swing set was left for them to enjoy.
“It read something like, ‘Dear whoever has my old swing set, It may have a little chipped paint, but it’s still good. I hope you love it as much as I did,’” Skillin-Smith said. “As soon as I read her letter, I said, ‘I’ll do whatever it takes to get her a swing set.’”
Hill View Mini Barns, of Etna, helped Dream Factory with the clubhouse, which has actual screened windows that open and a locking door.
“I’m happy she can have a place to call her own,” the girl’s mother said. “We take a lot of trips to the hospital, and she never complains, but there isn’t a lot of fun for her. This will give her that.”
Abby’s grandparents, Cheryl Shankel and Paul Russell, with their respective spouses Winston and Susan, stood around watching the girls, along with Abby’s big sister, Anna, play on the equipment.
“She’ll live there,” Cheryl Shankel said. “When you can’t find her, you’ll know where to look.”
Meanwhile, Abby and Cricket were already making plans for improvements.
“It needs a solar-powered microwave and a solar-powered fridge,” Abby said.