When 10-year-old Justin Fite arrived with his family to the Great American Home store in Southhaven, Mississippi, on Tuesday, he thought they were shopping for a new coffee table. Instead he received a wish come true — a trip with his family to Disney World, thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Mid-South.

It was an amazing afternoon for the Richland Elementary fourth grader, who struggles with epilepsy and hydrocephalus. The wish party unfolded slowly, starting with a magic show staged by the magician, Mr. Nick. Justin was excited when Mr. Nick asked for his assistance on-stage to help with a trick. But from that moment forward, the visit held one surprise after another.

First, Justin won cool prizes during the magic show, including an MP3 music player, a dinosaur, and a huge transformer. “You keep hitting the jackpot, Justin!” said mom Alexa Lane as she and the rest of the family looked on. Then came the scavenger hunt, along with a surprise appearance by Grizz, the mascot for Justin’s favorite NBA team, the Grizzlies. The little boy’s bright brown eyes grew bigger with each announcement.

The Grizz served as a playful guide as Justin’s scavenger hunt continued, following clues that wound them through the store until the two finally came to a room bedecked in streamers and filled with people. When Justin walked in, the crowd yelled, “Surprise! Your wish has come true!” He simply stood there, spellbound. “It was fabulous, amazing,” says Alexa of the party.

Store manager Brock Mills worked with his staff to help organize the day’s events, saying his company looks for local charities to support. “We wanted to donate time and money and Make-A-Wish gave us the avenue to do that,” he says. While the foundation works with the family to learn more about the child and coordinate the wish, financial partners raise the funds (it costs $5,000 to grant a wish), and orchestrate the reveal party. “We learned that Justin liked animals like fruit bats and dinosaurs, so we knew we wanted to create an animal theme,” says Mills.

The family leaves for their all-expenses-paid trip to Disney World on December 28th. They’ll stay at the Animal Kingdom resort for a week and visit several theme parks. Says Alexa, “Justin’s more prone to seizures when he doesn’t get enough sleep, so if we’re at this resort and he gets sick, he can at least see the animals from our balcony.”

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 5th, 2009 at 9:53 am and is filed under Activities, Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.