We were recently able to partner with Tulsa Ballet and the Make-A-Wish Foundation to help make a little girl's dream of becoming a ballerina a reality.
Here is Tulsa Worlds article about this special opportunity:
"Mahlia Venegas decided she wanted to be a ballerina even though, as of Sunday afternoon, she had never seen one in person.
But that did not deter the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Tulsa Ballet from making Mahlia’s dream come true.
Four-year-old
Mahlia was diagnosed more than a year ago with acute lymphoblastic
leukemia (ALL), a cancer of the bone marrow. Although her leukemia is
now in remission, her family wanted to make sure Mahlia had one special
wish come true.
“We’re always dancing
around the house, and we had even talked about enrolling her in dance
classes before she got sick,” her mother, Samantha Venegas, said. “I
said to her, ‘Why don’t we do something where you get to dance?’
“And that’s when she said, ‘I want to be a ballerina.’ She’s been practicing her twirls ever since.”
The
Make-A-Wish Foundation annually receives hundreds of requests for
special events to brighten the lives of seriously and terminally ill
children. Often these requests are for family vacations, ocean cruises,
or the chance to meet a favorite celebrity or sports figure.
“But
this was the first time we have ever had a request to be a ballerina,”
said Amy Ramsey, a Wish Coordinator for the Oklahoma Make-A-Wish
Foundation. “Fortunately, one of our staff members is friends with
people at Tulsa Ballet and got in touch with them early on.
“Tulsa Ballet just took the idea and ran with it,” Ramsey said. “They came up with a ton of ideas for things to do.”
Most
of those ideas centered around the fact that Tulsa Ballet was
presenting its final performance of “The Sleeping Beauty” on Sunday at
the Tulsa PAC.
“When the Make-A-Wish
people came to us with this idea, everyone at the ballet was so excited
about it,” said Kara Pryzbyl, marketing director for Tulsa Ballet. “Our
thought was, whatever we can do, we will.”
The
Make-A-Wish Foundation made arrangements for the entire family to come
from Caddo to Tulsa on Friday. They stayed at the Hyatt Regency Hotel
and spent Saturday visiting the Oklahoma Aquarium and playing the games
at Andy B’s bowling and entertainment center.
On
Sunday, Mahlia, her mother and her grandmother Anna Wong came to the
Tulsa PAC with representatives of the Make-A-Wish Foundation for
Mahlia’s day as a ballerina.
It began
with a brief tour backstage, where Mahlia got her first look at the
brightly colored costumes the ballet uses in “The Sleeping Beauty.”
She
then had a brief dance class with Lexie Sweeney, a teacher at the Tulsa
Ballet Center for Dance Education. It took a little coaxing to get
Mahlia to attempt some basic steps, but after a few run-throughs of “Let
It Go,” Sweeney had Mahlia following her lead.
When
two of the com pany’s pre-professional students, TyLeigh Baughman and
Sylvia Zhu, joined in, Mahlia’s own inner dancer came to the fore — so
much so that the Tulsa Ballet dancers, watching from the wings, burst
into applause.
“Now you’re a real ballerina,” Sweeney said.
Mahlia’s illness “just came out of the blue,” Venegas said.
“She
went from being this very healthy, active little girl to having these
odd fevers,” she said. “Nothing else seemed out of the ordinary, so the
doctors thought it was something viral.”
Then,
in September 2013, Mahlia woke up with an extremely high fever and
nosebleed. Venegas said the doctors again thought the problem was not
serious and suggested the family take Mahlia home.
“But I said, no, I wanted them to do some blood work on her because I knew something wasn’t right,” she said.
Tests
revealed that Mahlia’s hemoglobin level — the protein in red blood
cells that carries oxygen to the body — was 4.4. The average level for
someone Mahlia’s age is 12.5.
“If we had taken her home that night,” Venegas said, “we probably wouldn’t have her here today.”
Mahlia
has been undergoing treatment, and “she’s pretty much bounced through
everything,” her mother said. “They’d tell us the medicine would make
her sick, but the next day she’d be running down the halls, riding her
bike, taking care of her little brothers.”
If
Mahlia’s leukemia remains in remission until March 2016, doctors will
consider her cancer-free. But until then, Venegas said, the family
remains vigilant, looking for any signs that the cancer has returned.
“That’s
why today is such an amazing day,” she said, watching her daughter get
her face done up in stage makeup and her hair coiled into a bun by Tulsa
Ballet costume assistant Madison Rice. “She’s been through a lot and
deserves a special day. And this all has been so awesome.”
While
Rice was working on Mahlia’s makeup and hair, two Tulsa Ballet dancers
stopped by to share some personal gifts. Erin Pritchard baked cupcakes
that she decorated to look like tutus. Maine Kawashima presented Mahlia
with a pair of toe shoes that she had worn on stage, along with a
handmade card.
Black and Pink Dancewear donated a ballerina dress that resembled that worn by Aurora in “The Sleeping Beauty.”
As
for the ballet itself, “She really enjoyed it,” her mother said. “I
think her favorite part was when the ballerina fell asleep.”
It seems that Mahlia decided to do something similar herself for the ballet’s second act.
That
was probably why she was not interested in the last event of her day at
the ballet: presenting dancers with flowers after the show.
But she did agree to pose among the Tulsa Ballet dancers for one final photograph.
And right as the picture was about to be taken, Mahlia treated those watching to her widest, happiest smile."
B
y JAMES D. WATTS JR.
World Scene Writer
Tulsa World
Thank you Make-A-Wish and Tulsa Ballet for including us in the wonderful experience.
Picture Credit MIKE SIMONS/Tulsa
World
Tulsa Ballet
Make-A-Wish Foundation
