My name is Wyatt, and I am 10 years old. I was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy at 5 months old.
My wish thru Make-A-Wish^® was to go to the Daytona 500.

My wish began when a woman named Jennifer came to my home for a visit, and asked me what I would like to wish for, and of course I said to go to the Daytona 500, and two months later my wish had come true.

On Wednesday February 14, 2007 my wish had began, but I was really worried as we were having a snow storm, and wasn’t sure if we were going to make it. Just then a really long white limo came to my door to pick up me and my family and to take us to the Toronto airport.

We arrived in Orlando Florida, and my dad Sean got into our rental van and drove us up to Daytona Beach.

We stayed at the Perry Ocean Edge Resort which was right on the ocean, but it was too cold to swim in the water. It would have been ok if you were a polar bear, which my little brother Nick must be because he went swimming in the Ocean.

In the evening we were sitting around relaxing from our journey and someone knocked on the hotel door, and it was Ruth form the Florida Chapter of Make-A-Wish. She had come to welcome us and to give us our schedule. She answered all my family’s questions and made sure we understood our schedule.

On Thursday, we were able to tour around Daytona Beach at our own leisure, we got to ride on go carts, play games at the arcade, and it was a good day.

On Friday, we got to tour the NASCAR garages with four other Make-A-Wish^® families, we had the best tour guide ever, His name was Steve and he knew everything, about the track, cars and drivers. It was loud and the best time every. I got to meet Ward Burton, Boris Said, Richard Childress, Kasey Kahne, and other drivers too many to list. I got to have my shirt autographed by 10 different drivers, it was a dream come true.

Friday night it had gotten so cold in Daytona Beach, my parents said we need to get jackets. So they took my brother Nick and myself to the Daytona 2000 store, where we got to pick out Nascar Jackets. My Brother and I picked Dale Earnhardt Jr jackets, my mom Allison picked a Kasey Kahn jacket and my dad Sean picked a Tony Stewart jacket. Then we headed to the track to watch the Truck Series Race.

It was amazing, they go so fast and so loud, I couldn’t read the numbers when they went past. After the race my mom kept telling me to slow down, I wanted to race anything and everything in my wheelchair.

On Saturday we went to the track again, for the Orbitz 300 race. I really liked this race because Dale Earnhardt Jr was racing and he is my favorite driver…Mom and I sat in one section, and Dad and Nick sat in another section. After the race we went to Bubba Gumps restaurant for dinner, it was really good, and then went back to the hotel for a swim and a good night’s sleep, as the big race day was tomorrow.

On Sunday, we left for the Track at 12:00 pm, as my parents said it would be very busy and when we got there I couldn’t believe how many people were there…The race was exciting loud lots of action, it was an awesome day.

Then on Monday we left Daytona drove back to Orlando and got to spend the day at Disney World. Got to see the castle and go on all the rides, my favorite was the NASCAR track.

We would like to thank Make-A-Wish^® Southwestern Ontario, the Florida Chapter of Make-A-Wish^® and my wish grantor Jennifer for making my wish come true.

Make-A-Wish would like to thank the Cambridge Make-A-Wish Charity Golf Classic for sponsoring Wyatt’s wish.

More Adventure Wishes

1. Teresa Egan:

Thank you for grantng Wyatt's wish, he had a great time nd talked about it for months later .I Know Wyatt and hs family ae grateful to Make-A-Wish.

2. Allison Alenssen:

Thank you for making Wyatt's wish come true. We will always appreciate and Remember what Make A Wish has done to make a special boy feel happy and important..The Make A Wish Foundaton will always be in our heart and prayers.