Six-year-old Alyson walks the red carpet into her wish of a Target shopping spree filling her carts with clothes, toys and other goodies she has always wanted
VISALIA – Target on Mooney was filled with support, tears, joy and laughter as six-year-old Alyson’s wish was granted. Dressed as a princess, she filled her carts with a barbie dream house, squishies, games, clothes and anything that caught her eye.
On April 29, Alyson’s wish to dress up like Rapunzel and shop at Target to buy whatever she wanted was granted with the help of Target and several other volunteers. After a few hours of walking around the store, Alyson was ready to pack up and check out with a few carts full of goodies.
Alyson was diagnosed with cancer in December of last year and according to her family she is expected to be done with treatment in time to go back to school in August. Alyson’s parents are incredibly grateful for the foundation for providing their daughter with this amazing opportunity after all she has been through.
“We are thankful and happy with the organization and blessed that she was chosen to have her dream come true to go on a shopping spree,” Alyson’s mom Audrey said when her shopping spree was over.
The Make-A-Wish Foundation was able to grant Alyson’s wish on World Wish Day. This particular date carried extra meaning as it was the day the first ever wish was granted in the 1980s. Many Target employees were excited to welcome Alyson into their store. As the red carpet was rolled out and Alyson stepped out of her Limo bus, Target employees were lined up waiting for her to enter the store. Rebecca with human resources and some other employees were able to set up a dressing room just for Alyson. Inside the fitting room were some flowers, donuts, water, other goodies and two princess dresses just for her from Target.
After Alyson was able to see all the goodies waiting for her in her own special fitting room, her and her personal shopping committee full of employees and volunteers took off to the toy section, but not without stopping to grab a pair of rainbow rain boots. Allyson filled her carts with several goodies, her favorites being slime, Squishmallow plush toy and Barbie Dream House. Alyson said she was most excited to open the makeup when she got home and put it on her and her siblings. She said after getting dolled up with the makeup, she was going to open the rainbow slime.
Not to mention Target is Alyson’s favorite store. Her mom said she is always asking to go to Target and especially to do her back to school shopping. Once the spree was over, Audrey said Alyson was overwhelmed with all the goodies, but her wish-come-true was a big help for their family.
“Mostly toys and clothes [Alyson] said she wanted,” Audrey said. “We can’t really do this for her, so it’s something special, it really is so exciting and so nerve [wracking] too.”
Once Alyson and her crew were done shopping, they went to Panda Express, her favorite restaurant, to eat and have cupcakes. Alyson loves drawing, coloring and especially shopping. When she goes to the park, she loves to play on the swings and the jungle gym. Her favorite princesses are Repunzal, Cinderella and Ariel. Her favorite foods include chocolate cake, Little Caesars Pizza and McDonald’s. Audrey said Alyson is looking forward to returning to school next year.
“She is really excited to return to school in August because she missed all this school year,” Audrey said. “She’s super excited for kindergarten again.”
Also in attendance to help Alyson with her shopping spree, was Kevin Colopy with Dealer’s Choice. Since it is both Make-A-Wish and Dealer’s Choice 40th anniversary, Dealer’s Choice ran a special to donate a portion of each car sold to the foundation.
“This is a great opportunity to come out and experience this,” Colopy said. “When you see this live it’s pretty impressive and pretty neat.”
Make-A-Wish creates life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses and is on a quest to bring every eligible local child’s wish to life. Research has shown that a wish is an integral part of a child’s treatment journey. For more information about Make-A-Wish, visit wish.org/tricounties.
