Northwestern Mutual surprises 3-year-old boy with bedroom makeover

On May 25, Northwestern Mutual Omaha partnered with Special Spaces to surprise a brave 3-year-old boy, named Olin, with a dream bedroom makeover. Olin is just one of 17,000 kids in the U.S. who has been diagnosed with childhood cancer in the past year.

“A childhood cancer diagnosis affects a family in many ways, and we’re honored to have played a role in providing a glimpse of healing and happiness to Olin’s family today,” said Jennifer Brase, Managing Partner of Northwestern Mutual Omaha. “Every child deserves a nurturing environment to escape – and we hope Olin finds that in his new room.”

Inspired by Olin’s love for "Toy Story", a crew of dedicated volunteers from Northwestern Mutual Omaha worked together to paint the room, create custom decorations and fill the space with new furniture. During the surprise room reveal, Olin was thrilled with the outcome, which was complete with stuffed animals, hand painted Woody and Buzz Lightyear murals, a cozy chair with Olin’s name on it and more.

“Our partnership with Northwestern Mutual has been pivotal in making a difference in the lives of numerous children battling pediatric cancer,” said Ronnie Thomas, Director – Special Spaces Nebraska. “The hands-on support and generous contributions allow us to provide these children with a remarkable space where they don’t just sleep, relax and recover, but also play, dream and enjoy being a kid.”

Since 2021, Northwestern Mutual Omaha and Special Spaces have completed five bedroom makeovers for kids affected by childhood cancer with two more planned for later this year.

Founded in 2004 in Knoxville, Tennessee, Special Spaces is a national volunteer organization dedicated to creating dream bedrooms for children with cancer.

In addition to the support of the Omaha office, Northwestern Mutual, through its Foundation, has funded more than 700,000 hours of research to accelerate the search for better treatments and cures for childhood cancer and contributed more than $60 million to the cause overall. To learn more about the company’s commitment to childhood cancer, visit the Northwestern Mutual Foundation's website here.

About Northwestern Mutual Foundation

The mission of the Northwestern Mutual Foundation is to improve the lives of children and families in need. The Foundation has given more than $490 million since its inception in 1992 and is designed to create lasting impact in the communities where the company's employees and financial representatives live and work. We accomplish this by combining financial support, volunteerism, thought leadership and convening community partners to deliver the best outcomes. Our efforts are focused nationally on curing childhood cancer, and locally on education, neighborhoods and making our hometown of Milwaukee a great destination. Visit Northwestern Mutual Foundation to learn more.

About Northwestern Mutual

Northwestern Mutual has been helping people and businesses achieve financial security for more than 165 years. Through a comprehensive planning approach, Northwestern Mutual combines the expertise of its financial professionals with a personalized digital experience and industry-leading products to help its clients plan for what's most important. With more than $627 billion of total assets being managed across the company's institutional portfolio as well as retail investment client portfolios, nearly $36 billion in revenues, and $2.3 trillion worth of life insurance protection in force, Northwestern Mutual delivers financial security to more than five million people with life, disability income and long-term care insurance, annuities, and brokerage and advisory services. Northwestern Mutual ranked 111 on the 2023 FORTUNE 500.

Northwestern Mutual is the marketing name for The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company (NM), Milwaukee, WI (life and disability insurance, annuities, and life insurance with long-term care benefits) and its subsidiaries. Subsidiaries include Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC (NMIS) (investment brokerage services), broker-dealer, registered investment adviser, member FINRA and SIPC; the Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company® (NMWMC) (investment advisory and services), federal savings bank; and Northwestern Long Term Care Insurance Company (NLTC) (long-term care insurance). Not all Northwestern Mutual representatives are advisors. Only those representatives with "Advisor" in their title or who otherwise disclose their status as an advisor of NMWMC are credentialed as NMWMC representatives to provide investment advisory.

About Special Spaces

Our goal is to provide children with cancer a Special Space where they can not only sleep, relax, and recover but also play and enjoy just being a kid. Over the last 20 years, we’ve delivered over 1700 dream bedroom makeovers for these special children (18 of those to date locally). We are proud to be a high touch, high impact organization that changes the lives of children in our community. We do this… One Child. One Room. One Day… at a time.

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