PLAYHOUSES RAISE FUNDS FOR LOCAL MAKE-A-WISH

Keith Estes worked on the exterior of a miniature home.

Big wishes are sometimes built around little things.

On Tuesday, four playhouses will go on display at West Park Mall. They were constructed by Perryville contractors who have donated their time and skills to help make a wish come true for terminally ill children.

The houses will be exhibited at the mall until March 12, when they will be moved to the Show Me Center for the annual Homebuilders Association House and Garden Show. There they will be auctioned with proceeds going to the local Make-A-Wish Foundation.

This is the second year of Playhouses on Parade. Four Perryville contractors -- Jim Hunt, Allen Morris, Rocky Schumer and Tom Unterreiner -- made this year's entries.

The idea started three years ago in California and has spread across the country.

Shad B. Old, a Make-A-Wish volunteer and organizer of Playhouses on Parade, picked up the idea and thought it would work well in Southeast Missouri. Last year the event raised $14,500 to help grant wishes to terminally ill children.

The houses are usually sold to families whose children use them until they get too big to fit in them. Then they are landscaped as decorative additions to yards.

Old said the local Make-A-Wish program granted three wishes last month in Patton and Jackson.

A Patton brother and sister were given a horse and entertainment center. "I can't imagine what their parents are going through with two terminally ill children," he said.

A Jackson boy was sent to San Diego for a sporting event.

Old said most of the wishes granted by the foundation are sending children to Disney World in Florida.

Hunt, of Hunt's Construction Co. in Perryville, said he was thinking about those children while he built his playhouse. Hunt's two-story playhouse is about 20 feet tall with a front stoop, working windows and a mock brick fireplace. Like most playhouses it is a perfectly proportioned replica of a real house.

"The wishes they want aren't terribly expensive so you tend to think about what kid might go to Disney World or whatever their wish may be," Hunt said. "I figured if my kids were ill I'd surely want something like this done for them. Plus, this is my trade. It's something I can do, and I love doing it."

Hunt started a two-story English Tudor home about a month ago. He said he would probably be surprised if he added up the time he has spent working on it.

"It's all weekends and evenings," he said. "When it's for a good cause it doesn't bother you at all."

Hunt spares no details. He has installed hardwood floors, a non-working fireplace, a working ceiling fan and baseboard heat. He said it really hasn't been very expensive because nearly all of his material has been donated by his suppliers.

The front door was a problem because no one makes small doors. Hunt said Richard Jones of Uniontown is making a door.

There is competition among the contractors to make the best playhouse.

Unterreiner, of Unterreiner Construction Inc. in Perryville, has a family member who was granted a wish by the foundation. He said he doesn't mind putting in the long hours, or spending about $500 of his own money on the cottage he is building.

"I've got two kids, and I'm just glad they're healthy," Unterreiner said. "And I like doing it. This is one donation that I feel like donating to because the money is going right there. Some of these other places you don't know where the money's going to go."

This is Unterreiner's second year in Playhouses on Parade. He said it is a lot of work but he likes it.

"I got a little 4-year-old boy and he hates to see the houses go," he said. "He goes out and helps me and is in the shop with me nearly the whole time. It kind of breaks his heart when we've got to take it. But he knows it's for a sick kid."