Mountain America Employees Make-A-Wish Come True for Utah Girl
September 30, 2022
Mountain America Credit Union is committed to the philosophy of “people helping people.” As part of this commitment, every year in May, team members contribute to their employee match campaign. This year, during the credit union’s third annual donation campaign, they chose to give the gift of hope to children with critical illnesses in their communities by raising $30,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. In all, employees’ contributions granted the wishes of six seriously ill children in Utah, Idaho and Arizona.
“The generous contributions from Mountain America team members have helped grant wishes for a baby grand piano, an off-road wheelchair and a trip to Disney World in November,” said Daniel Dudley, chief development officer for Make-A-Wish Utah.
Mountain America also partnered with Make-A-Wish to help deliver a wish proclamation to one special Utah girl, Ileana. Ileana has battled leukemia since 2019 and is now in remission.
On Tuesday, September 20, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, in partnership with Mountain America Credit Union, treated Illeana, her mother and family to a dream day filled with all her favorite things, including drinking homemade smoothies, decorating sugar cookies and playing with puppies. She ended the day having another wish fulfilled: performing live on a stage for an audience.
“She always wanted to dance and sing,” said Mireya Rodriguez, Illeana’s grandmother. “Cancer robbed her ability to do that for three years. Once her cancer was in remission, she started to dance and sing again. She wanted to be on stage for people to see her. She is finally living her dream and it was something she never expected.”
Illeana joined her mother and representatives from Mountain America and Make-A-Wish to sing her favorite “Little Mermaid” song, “Part of Your World,” to a live audience of Mountain America employees at its annual training conference held at Hale Centre Theatre. After the performance, the two entities presented her wish to take a family trip to Disney World.
“It was such a pleasure to present Illeana with her wish proclamation and to see her beaming on stage today,” said Sharlene Wells, senior vice president of public relations and organizational communications. “We are proud to support our community and organizations like Make-A-Wish Utah who make dreams like Ileana’s come true.”
For more information about Mountain America and its community involvement, visit macu.com.