TodayFamilies granted a wish upon a star
Two Shippensburg families prepare for a Disney World trip through the Make-a-Wish Foundation
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Peggy Coover, holds her daughter, Ariel, 2, both of Shippensburg. Ariel, who has Canavan disease, which is a rare, inherited, degenerative brain disorder, was recently given a gift to vacation in with her family in Disney World courteously of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Jason Malmont/The Sentinel
Mandy Mixel, holds her son Jayden, 3, both of Shippensburg. Jayden, who suffered a seizure during his birth, was recently given a gift to vacation with his family in Disney World courteous of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Jason Malmont/The Sentinel
For Peggy Coover, when her 2-year-old daughter Ariel meets the mermaid of her namesake, it will be something she’ll never forget.
Same goes for the help it took to set up this magical meeting for the Shippensburg residents.
A trip to Disney World is not exactly something she could have done on her own.
There’s the airfare, the paperwork for formula and medicine and the wheelchair, oxygen tank and other hefty equipment that Coover wouldn’t be able to lug around an airport.
That’s where the Make-A-Wish Foundation stepped in.
Ariel, who suffers from a rare, degenerative brain disease, was granted a wish to visit Disney World next month.
And the Coovers won’t be going alone.
Coover’s cousin, John Mixell, will bring his son Jayden, 3, who was also granted the Disney wish from the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Susquehanna Valley. Jayden, who had a stroke in the womb and has suffered from seizures, is looking forward to meeting Mickey Mouse for the first time, according to his mother Mandy Mixell.
“A man from the Make-A-Wish Foundation came by and asked Jayden if he wanted to see Mickey Mouse,” Mixell said. “His eyes lit up, and the guy said that was all he needed.”
Both Jayden and Ariel can’t talk because of their conditions, but the smallest change in expressions is all their mothers need to see to know what their kids are thinking.
“She smiled when I told her about it,” Coover said. “She really likes the princesses. I think she really understood what I was saying.”
It started with a nomination.
Coover and Mixell nominated their children to become recipients of a wish from the foundation. Ariel’s untreatable condition slowly deteriorates her brain, and Jayden suffered 30 to 100 seizures daily until a special treatment in July temporarily stopped the seizures for what doctors expected could be four to six months or a year.
With the confirmation from the families’ doctors, the Make-A-Wish Foundation continued the wish process by sending a team in to talk to the family and the children.
“Disney is the first option they gave us, and I think that’s what they usually do with children, especially those who are this young and can’t talk,” Coover said. “They asked us our second choice, and we didn’t really have one. I think I said a hot tub for Ariel. She does aquatic therapy and just loves it.”
“Our second choice was Sesame Place because he loves Elmo,” Mixell said.
After nominating Ariel in November, Coover got the news in January that she and her family were going to Disney World. A month later Mixell received the same news.
“I asked them if they ever sent families together, and they said they could make it possible,” Coover said.
The trip will pay for all of the members in both families, including Coover’s son Dylan and husband Walter and Mixell’s daughter Kayla.
Along with the airfare, the foundation also helps the family out with spending money, equipment and transportation — something Coover is all too thankful for with her child requiring a wheelchair.
“They have equipment they rented for us to be ready down there, like emergency oxygen that she may need to use,” Coover said. “They’ll both get wheelchairs and the formula will be sent down ahead of time, so we won’t have to deal with doctor’s notes and airport security. I don’t want to check in the medicine in case they lose our bags.”
After a “bon voyage” party with family and friends where the two mothers hope to raise money for the foundation, which spends about $5,000 for each wish, the Coover and Mixell families will travel via limousine to the Philadelphia airport and fly to Florida for a six-night, seven-day trip to the amusement park.
The trip will be a little bittersweet for Coover, whose daughter Amber died eight years ago, also from Canavan disease, and who had the same wish granted around that time, but Coover is still looking forward to it.
“The anniversary is on April 10, and we’ll be leaving April 12,” Coover said. “I hope it will be a nice distraction from that. It’ll be nice that we can go again.”
