Playhouse drawing highlights Tierra Bonita campaign

By Emily Sorensen

Tierra Bonita Elementary School’s upcoming fundraiser offers up the chance to buy a house — a playhouse, that is.

The miniature house, built and donated by Mark Anderson of Instant Mobile House, is being raffled off at the ninth annual STARs dinner and auction, hosted by the Tierra Bonita Education Foundation and the PTA, 6 p.m. Saturday, March 2 at the Bernardo Heights Country Club.

The proceeds from the raffle and auction will go to benefit STARs (Supporting Science, Technology, Arts and Reading in Education), which goes toward curriculum development in science, classroom technology, art education and support of reading and other fundamentals. It will also go toward helping Tierra Bonita build a digital library to increase student access to books, and continue the school’s iPad program.

More than just an ordinary playhouse, the house being raffled is something special. “It is a true house, just miniature,” said Anderson, who spent four months building the playhouse in his spare time. “It’s built to manufactured home standards.” The house features a sled foundation, which makes it easy to move and means it can be placed directly on the ground, as well as a roof with decorative shingles, rated for 35 years, and a porch with handrails, also rated for 35 years. Anderson said the structure itself is rated for 50 years.

Designed in Queen Anne style, the playhouse is decorated inside and out, with a 6-foot sky blue ceiling inside, tall enough for most parents and grandparents to join their kids in the structure to play. The playhouse itself is 11 feet tall, over 8 feet wide and 12 feet long.

Building the playhouse was not easy, or cheap. “It was built out of a labor of love for children,” said Anderson. “It’s all about the children.” He figured that between materials and labor, the playhouse was worth $15,000.

Anderson also has one final gift: he’s willing to deliver the playhouse anywhere in San Diego County for free, using his trailer. All the winner has to do is rent a flatbed tow truck, usually about $60, for one half-hour, and provide three 8-foot PVC pipes for Anderson to use to roll the playhouse along to your desired spot.

The raffle for the playhouse is open to everyone in San Diego County.

Raffle tickets are one for $10, or 10 tickets for $75, and are available for purchase at the Tierra Bonita Elementary School office, and for the next three Saturdays at the Farmers Market in Old Poway Park, where the playhouse will be on display. The playhouse will also be on display every Friday at Tierra Bonita Elementary. Tickets for the STARs dinner and auction will also be for sale for $65 each.