Jonesboro, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – Nov. 22, 2024 – A Valley View 7-year-old was granted her wish of meeting her favorite characters at Walt Disney World on Thursday.
During a Disney-themed celebration at Valley View Elementary, Make-A-Wish MidSouth volunteers granted Charlotte Rogers’ wish to go to Walt Disney World.
Although Valley View Elementary students worked hard this year to fundraise and grant a wish, they were just as surprised to find out that the wish they had granted was one of their own.
According to Charlotte Rogers’s mother, Paige Rogers, they found out in October 2023 their daughter had been chosen to have her wish granted.
“We had to go through a process,” Paige Rogers said. “I don’t know exactly how it works, but we are so excited.”
Charlotte Rogers has tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), which is a rare genetic disease that causes non-cancerous tumors to grow in the brain and several areas of the body.
“She’s doing really good right now, and she has been, but really it could change in a second,” she explained. “When she was nine months old, she had brain surgery for seizures. There’s no telling really how many she had, but they recorded 12 in a day at one point.”
Charlotte Rogers has been seizure-free since her surgery at nine months old. However, the disease can involve all organs in the body, including the kidneys, lungs and heart. As such, her health must be continuously monitored.
Paige Rogers also has TSC, with her own seizures starting at age four. At that time, there was a lack of research on the disease, causing doctors to assume epilepsy. It wasn’t until sixth grade before the doctors found out what she had. She had surgery at 16 and has been seizure-free since.
“A lot of tuberous sclerosis patients have autism and all varying degrees of disability,” Paige Rogers said. “We’re just so blessed and thankful that God has chosen to keep us healthy and mildly infected and not that that can’t change, but it’s a daily thing.”
Charlotte Rogers came to the ceremony dressed as Bell for Valley View Elementary’s Disney Day. She said she’d been to Walt Disney World once before, but that she was super excited and would go a million times if able.
“It’s very exciting. I don’t know what I want to do first. I love princesses. Look, I am Bell today,” Charolette giggled.
Deania Vanhoozer and Lori Fitts, volunteers with Make-A-Wish, contacted the Rogers family about a year ago about granting Charlotte Rogers’s wish.
Fitts said the trip had been about a year in the making, as they must ensure Charolette Rogers is healthy enough to make a trip, as well as make sure she has the proper clearances from doctors.
Vanhoozer said granting wishes at school is always special to them.
“The thing that’s special about school wishes is that it gets so many more people involved,” Vanhoozer said. “It’s not just Make-A-Wish, it’s not just the Wish Family and the Wish Child, it gets the community involved. All of these kids have families that raised money last year to be able to sponsor a wish. So, Valley View is the sponsor of this wish and that’s why we hosted it here.”
To raise money for the wish, last spring Valley View students in kindergarten through second grade were asked to bring in $1 for the opportunity to pie an administrator in the face. The more money students brought, the more times their name was entered to pie an administrator.
The school has partnered with Make-A-Wish for around 15 years to help a child in the community, however Valley View Elementary Principal Beth Carr said the school was just as surprised to find out that their wish went to one of their own this year.
“Every year we partner with Make a Wish for a fundraiser,” Carr said. “That money doesn’t always go to Valley View Elementary. It would go to any child in our area. We did not know when we were raising this money that it would be for a student here in our district. It just so happened that our student this year was one of those that had a wish granted.”
Vanhoozer added that it was neat to show Valley View students that the money they raise truly does impact their community.
“Obviously you hope you don’t have a student that needs it,” she said. “You hope to raise the money, but it never comes back to you because we don’t want anybody to have to go through that. However, whether it’s at their school, church or whatever, most people know a Wish kid.”
