Andrea Isabella (Isa) Perez got her wish -- a family trip to Disney World, thanks to a bunch of Bulldogs and the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Mid-South chapter.
"So I can go and see the princess Snow White," her favorite princess, Isa said.
Isa, a second-grader at Tyson Elementary School in Springdale, suffers from cystic fibrosis, which requires four-hour daily treatments with medications as well as regular 15- to 20-day hospital stays in Little Rock, explained her father, Antonio Perez.
The Make-a-Wish Foundation works with local volunteers to provide children with life-threatening conditions the time of their lives. The DECA program at Springdale High School raised the money for Isa's trip.
Isa learned about her wish Friday at a pep rally at Springdale High. To surprise Isa, faculty at Tyson named Isa the winner of a school spirit competition, which gave her the opportunity to sing the Tyson Tiger fight song at the pep rally and win an honorary Bulldog award -- with no thought to the 2,200 high school students watching her.
As Isa finished the song -- complete with pom pons, a Tyson T-shirt and a tutu in the school's colors -- two Bulldog football players rolled out a red carpet. A glittering cardboard castle was placed at the end, where Isa's family waited. Disney princesses and other characters lined the walk. High school students cheered, and balloons floated through the air when the trip was announced.
In addition, Isa went home with a tiara, Disney dolls and posters, pajamas, a princess dress and even luggage. Local businesses including Toys R Us and Walmart donated the items, explained Esther Wills, development coordinator for Make-A-Wish.
"I got two backpacks, a castle and a notebook," said Isa, who was happy and excited, but seemed a bit mystified at the activity around her.
Families work with their children to determine their wishes, Wills said -- and Disney World trips and tree houses are the two most requested. Last weekend included six "reveals" for the Make-A-Wish Foundation as families started making travel plans for the Thanksgiving holidays, Wills said. "In Northwest Arkansas, there are always 20 in the pipeline," she noted.
Part of Isa's wish was to get "a million doughnuts," said Kimberly Crumby, assistant principal at Tyson Elementary. With a donation from a local doughnut store, Isa treated the entire school to a doughnut party Friday afternoon, Crumby said.
In addition, the students of Bulldog TV and the district's communication department worked to broadcast the pep rally via live streaming for the students at Tyson Elementary to watch.
Another surprise for Isa was a ride back to Tyson Elementary in a limousine. She looked inside but turned to her mom for permission. "I get to ride?" she asked.
"You get to ride," said her mother Michelle Perez, with an indulgent smile.
Isa, her brothers and her cousins chattered away in the back of the limousine during the joy ride. They drove through Fayetteville then past Tyson Elementary, where Isa waved from the limousine to her friends out at recess.
"Isa truly has a sweet spirit," Crumby said of Isa in an email from her school. "She always has a ready smile and a question or comment for me. She is very smart and works hard. Her disability doesn't really slow her down when she's at school."
"Isa is a very energetic little girl," said her mother, "She's happy, she's cheerful."
"She's amazing," added her father.
Doctors or parents refer patients to Make-A-Wish, Wills said. Once the foundation approves the gift, children are matched with sponsor organizations to raise the money. In Isa's case, DECA sponsor Tracy Reed already was friends with Isa's mother. Their sons played baseball together.
"(The DECA students) talked about a service project, and it was timed perfectly (to Isa's wish)," Reed said.
Every year, the state DECA organization asks each chapter to make a small donation to Make-A-Wish, said Mayra Rivas said, vice president of SHS DECA. "But Mrs. Reed thought we were the right people, that we can do this, we can raise $5,000 in a month."
"It was definitely doable," Reed said.
Sponsor organizations are asked to raise between $5,000 and $8,000, the average cost of a wish, Wills said. "That's a lot of money," she said. "The (DECA students) worked the whole month of October and met their goal early."
The wish sponsors have complete discretion on how to raise the money and to design the setting for the "reveal" of the award. "What they do for fundraising and the reveal are up to their imaginations," Wills said.
The DECA club sold red Bulldog T-shirts, painted faces at football games and brought in $1,500 in a "Minute to Fill It" campaign at the Har-Ber High School versus Springdale High football game, Rivas said. "We passed buckets through the stands and asked people to give us their spare change."
Many other school organizations were involved, she noted -- from the drama department providing costumes and playing characters to the student council, which allowed them to be part of the pep rally. The SHS Islander Club helped in the change collection, and students at George Junior High held their own change collection in support of Isa's wish.
"Then we just had random students volunteer," Reed said.
"The students responded, but then we kept pushing and pushing them," Rivas said. "We were thinking, 'Would they give any more?' They did."
As of Friday, the total amount earned was $6,746.97, and that total continues to grow.
"That's incredible," Wills said. "To date, that's the most a high school has raised for a wish."
DECA provides students chances to develop their skills in business administration -- marketing, business management, finance, hospitality and tourism and entrepreneurship, Reed said. In addition, students will submit the project's 30-page business plan and reflection, along with a live presentation, for judging against other programs in the state.
"It takes everybody to come together to make dreams come true," SHS Principal Pete Joenks praised his students at the pep rally. "This is because of you."
NAN Our Town on 11/12/2015