About a dozen people gathered at Mr. Gatti’s one Saturday in April to celebrate a little girl named Tailyn. It was a birthday party that also doubled as a send-off party, since the soon-to-be 3-year-old was just weeks away from a trip to Disney World. There was pizza, cake, presents and games and all of it was organized by a senior at Lubbock’s Talkington School for Young Women Leaders.
“My advisor actually helped me out and said you can work with Make-A-Wish and I was like that’s awesome,” Alicia Levine explained.
In order to graduate, Levine had to complete a senior project. She explained that each student must dedicate at least 15 hours to it. Levine estimated she’d already spent about 22 hours on her project, which focused on palliative medicine.
“My project was just to work with somebody in that situation so the wish manager from Make-A-Wish helped me out in organizing a party for Tailyn,” Levine said.
Levine asked for and received donations to make the party possible. She said she learned a lot by having to step out of her ‘comfort zone’ and ask for both money and materials.
“(I learned) just like how I’m strong enough to go out there and ask for donations and work with such a great cause and it feels really good,” she said. “I wanted to do more do-it-yourself but I’m not really a do-it-yourself person so all those who donated really helped me out.”
The Make-A-Wish Foundation will send Tailyn to Disney World in April. According to her family, she was diagnosed with leukemia in December 2014 and is scheduled to continue chemotherapy treatments through 2017.
Watch the associated video to see more from Tailyn’s party.
