By ANNIE C. LEAVITT
Moapa Valley Progress
Team Moapa Valley walked and ran its 7th annual Walk for Wishes for the Make-A-Wish Foundation on Saturday in Las Vegas. The 5k run/walk, or 1 mile fun walk, is a great fundraising activity for family and friends. Music, free food, Star Wars and Disney characters, the LVMPD SWAT team and a helicopters flew to the opening ceremonies to entertain and pose for photos with event participants.
Team Moapa Valley, led by Overton resident Natalie Jacobsmeyer, had 58 total team members this year. That’s down drastically from 201 members of last year’s team. But with only 20 team members actually at the race Saturday, the team was still able to raise $1,460 dollars, which was enough to grant a “wish” for a child.
The Make-A-Wish foundation grants wishes to children ages 3-18 with life threatening conditions. The entire Southern Nevada chapter raised approximately $293,000 dollars for granting “wishes.”
Over the past 13 years Moapa Valley has had 8 wishes granted to local families. Mandy May (2002), Lance Hilton (2004), Austin May (2005), Jenni Jacobsmeyer (2008), Jenna Jackson (2010), Jason Brill (2011), Cayson Mcclure (2011) and Spencer Raban (2013).
Instead of being held at the end of February, this year’s race was held a month later, and the date change could be the reason for low turnout.
The opening ceremonies were led by Dana and Kim Wagner of News 3 Las Vegas and began with an amazing performance of “The Star Spangled Banner”, testimonials of Wish families and a “Wish” of a new playground was granted to a wish family on the stage. Stories of bravery, treatments, adversity, and overcoming obstacles would bring tears to your eyes.
Dark blue shirts could be seen throughout the crowd. These were the “Wish kids “and “Wish parents.”
These kids were smiling, happy and radiant. You would never know that each and every one of them has faced years of medical trials, treatments and diagnosis’.
One “wish mom” said that the “wish” that had been granted to her daughter helped the entire family focus on that fantastic weekend in Hollywood instead of the year of chemo treatments and constant flights to special hospitals.
Even though Attendance was at a low this year for Team Moapa Valley, newscaster Dana Wagner recognized Jacobsmeyer during the opening ceremonies for her tenacity and constant support to raise funds for this great cause.
