 |
Wishes Aren't Just For Kids: Family and Their Ill Adult Son Share Disneyland Memories
|
11/26/2008 3:47 p.m.
|
David Legas is 29 and stands six-feet, five-inches tall, yet he carries a Mickey Mouse doll with him everywhere he goes. He has four dolls of Woody—the cowboy from "Toy Story"—that he tucks into bed in a box each night. And he spends hours staring at photographs from a recent trip to Disneyland with his family.
Legas is battling a neurological disorder called tuberous sclerosis. His condition, which is considered terminal, has replaced 75 percent of the healthy tissue in his kidneys with tumors, says his mother, Barbara Legas. David has the mentality of a young child and doesn't speak, but he shows his pleasure by smiling, rocking back and forth, and skipping.
As David's health deteriorated, Barbara Legas was determined to take him to Disneyland so he could see his beloved Mickey and Woody, but she wasn't sure how to make it happen. She told a co-worker, who told her sister, Carmen Layne, an Alaska Airlines flight attendant.
"There must be something we can do," Layne said, and she contacted Donna Hartman, manager of community relations and corporate giving for the Lower 48.
Hartman went to The Dream Foundation, a national wish-granting organization for adults with life-limiting illnesses that was founded in 1994.
"We all know about Make-A-Wish, but few employees know there is also an organization out there to assist adults with their wishes," Hartman says. Alaska Airlines has donated more than $174,000 worth of transportation to The Dream Foundation in the past five years.
Last month, David Legas and his family flew to Disneyland courtesy of Alaska. The Dream Foundation donated hotel stays and a rental car. During their weeklong trip, the family also visited SeaWorld, where David had a chance to feed the dolphins, and the San Diego Zoo.
David loved all the rides at Disneyland, but his highlight was seeing Mickey and enjoying a private 10- to 15-minute meeting with Woody. The family had gone to see a Frontierland show that Woody appeared in. Barbara slipped an employee the letter she had sent to The Dream Foundation about David's fascination with Woody and asked if he would pass it along. He did, and the actor playing Woody came out to pose, hug David and sign one of his Woody dolls.
"He sat there with his mouth open," Barbara Legas says. "He would look down at his doll and then look at Woody—like he just couldn't believe it."
All the Alaska Airlines employees involved with the flight went overboard to make the trip extra special, Legas says.
His family had been worried about how David would do onboard the plane and didn't want to be separated from him. The whole family was seated in first class. Captain Freddie Vincent made an announcement about the "special guests" and gave David wings and a Woody character doll.
The family was able to wait in the Board Room before the flight, where it was quiet and comfortable. As they entered the boarding area, the family learned they would be flying aboard the "Spirit of Disneyland" with Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters on the tail. And when they arrived at LAX, station agents lined the jetway to welcome them with balloons, cheering and clapping. Family members were also given Alaska Airlines gift bags.
"We really weren't expecting all that," Barbara Legas says. "All of the employees were truly wonderful. I just couldn't believe a big company could be like this. I will always fly Alaska Airlines."
While David and his family face a difficult time in the months ahead, his family will always treasure the trip, Barbara Legas says. The family took 800 photos, which she is compiling into a scrapbook for David to look at when he isn't feeling well.
"It's hard to accept what is to come, but we have all these great memories now," Legas says.
|
|
|
