Despite persistent wind and a fresh torrent of rain, Tara Boyce hurried Thursday afternoon to fasten a big, red Christmas ribbon across the doorway of a new playhouse at the Central Children's Home.

A holiday foster parent had just pulled up the drive with two girls who were going to accept the gift on behalf of the home's eight youngest girls. The adults who had slipped in to admire the 10-by-14-foot wooden miniature house carefully ducked under the ribbon and waited for the children's reactions.

The house had been delivered from South Carolina the day before as many of the home's 37 children were leaving to spend Christmas with temporary foster families. It came empty, but now it was filled with things that would delight any child who imagined having a real house.

Miniature antique pots and pans were set on the play stove. Stuffed animals peered down from the wooden railings across the loft. New erasers and chalk were carefully balanced along the top of a chalkboard screwed to the wall that morning. A child-size table and chairs, hand-painted and decorated with ladybugs and smiling flowers, were arranged near a new wooden play kitchen set.

Pleased with how the house had come together, Boyce, who came up with the idea of donating a playhouse about a month ago, was already talking to the home's staff about improving it with a ceiling fan and painted walls.

Doing something for the children's home was the answer to a persistent feeling the Raleigh resident had that she needed to somehow help children less fortunate than her two young daughters.

"It's been an empty feeling in my heart and the back of my mind," Boyce said.

Getting started

Finally, Boyce, 46, decided to get started. She contacted the home's assistant director, James Moseley, and toured the campus in the fall.

When she noticed that there was a swing set on the boys' side and no swing set for the girls' side, Boyce decided the girls needed a playhouse. She had had one growing up and had bought one last year for her daughters.

"It's their little domain," Boyce said. "That's how it was for my sister and I. We had four brothers, and they weren't allowed in our playhouse."

But Boyce didn't take on the project alone.

She called in a favor with a Mennonite carpenter who had crafted her children's playhouse in Greenwood, S.C., and got it built at cost.

Boyce, a pharmaceutical sales representative, rallied support among her clients. She raised $3,200 for the house and items.

"People really wanted to help," Boyce said.

Her contacts at Cardinal Health in Greensboro chipped in hundreds for the kitchen set. Two Cardinal employees spent Thursday installing the little refrigerator, stove and cabinets and arranging new My Little Ponies, Barbies and baby dolls that were left over from their company Christmas party.

A friend made the baby blankets and pillows.

"I've been truly blessed with people who have come forward and volunteered," Boyce said.

More time for children

Instead of stressing her out, the working mother found the project prompted her to want to make more time for the children who are staying at the home. She and her husband, Mike, are going through the process of becoming temporary foster parents so they can take children to a fair for the day, to their house for the weekend or or home over the holidays.

"I have a 3- and 4-year-old and travel two states, but I don't mind sharing my home and taking some of those children off campus on the weekend and come and play," Boyce said.

While raising money, Boyce has also been encouraging other adults to share their time with the children. She is hoping that someone will volunteer to give art or music lessons to the children.

"Throughout the year, these children need love and attention," Boyce said.

Ready with camera

Wearing a Santa hat, Boyce stood by with a camera, eager to see how the children would react.

Nikita, 9, cut the ribbon. Her sister Megan, 7, brother Bradley, 10, and four other young boys crowded around, ready to explore.

After the ribbon fluttered to the soggy ground, the children scrambled past a wooden swing on the house's little front porch and headed straight for the ladder to the loft.

Nikita climbed the wooden ladder and sat cross-legged in the middle, perfectly centered in the small A-framed area. She asked for someone to take her picture, smiling with her elbows on her chin.

The boys went through the variety of fake cookies, cereals and eggs in the play-kitchen cupboard, asking adults if any of it was real.

Nikita's younger sister, Megan, quietly slipped over to the chalkboard. She erased the neatly written "Merry Christmas" on the chalkboard and rewrote it herself, adding "I [heart] all of you."