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Features
Allen’s dream comes true through Make-A-Wish Foundation
BY DUB JOINER, STAFF WRITER
Thursday, July 31, 2008 1:34 PM CDT
News Observer photo/Dub Joiner
Brittney Allen stands on the ladder leading to the new swimming pool she received from the Make-A-Wish Foundation of East Tennessee. She is a special education student at Copper Basin High School.
News Observer photo/Dub Joiner
As a Make-A-Wish recipient, Brittney Allen of Ducktown received a wish party, a cake, and other gifts along with her main wish of a swimming pool. Make-A-Wish representatives Tory Hood, left and Elizabeth Clark, help Brittney hold the wish party cake.
News Observer photo/Dub Joiner
Copper Basin High School special education teacher Amber Cigliano, right, receives a hug from Brittney Allen during a wish party at the Allen home. Cigliano said Brittney is a blessing to everyone around her.
Brittney, who is 17, has five chronic illnesses, most of which involve problems with her heart and back.
While she doesn’t say too many words verbally, she communicates with a smile, hug, and a word or two.
At a wish party at her home, Saturday, July 19, Brittney received a cake, a digital camera and Make-A-Wish T-shirts for the whole family from Make-A-Wish Foundation representatives Tory Hood and Elizabeth Clark.
“When the Make-A-Wish Foundation was mentioned to us, I didn’t think Brittany would be eligible,” her mother, Becky Miller, said. “I felt it was for people who are terminally ill and Brittney has lived at least seven years past what we were told she would when she was born.”
Miller said when Brittany was approved, “we were thrilled to find out because there are a number of kids in the area that are more severe and some less than Brittney.”
After being approved, and to make the wish come true, Brittney was taken to Athens, Tenn., for interviews and to choose her wish.
“She was offered all sorts of wishes, but she pointed to the above-ground pool,” Miller said.
“We can do above-ground pools, but not in-ground pools,” Hood said. “So, the foundation was happy to grant her wish.”
Work on the pool began in early May by a pool company from Niota, Tenn., and it was completed by the end of May. Miller said.
Now, Brittney, who loves basketball, can shoot baskets in the new pool using a pool basketball and goal provided by the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
When not enjoying the pool and taking pictures with the camera, Brittney is a special education student at Copper Basin High School.
Her teacher, Amber Cigliano, said she is “a blessing to everyone, especially me, for which I am thankful.”
She said Brittney is in a self-contained classroom but is mainstreamed throughout the general curriculum.
“We focus on a lot of self-help skills, but she also works with colors, math, puzzles and locating signs in the school such as exit signs,” Cigliano said.
She said Brittney enjoys working with the general school population who respond wonderfully to her.
“But her favorite thing to do is play basketball. She loves basketball,” Cigliano said.
“My goal is to help her finish high school self-help and functional skills and basically help her transition from high school to the real world,” Cigliano said. “She, along with my other students, is the reason I am at the high school and I learn so much from all of them..”
Brittney is the daughter of Becky and Keith Miller and Brian and April Allen.
For information about the Make-A-Wish Foundation call 423-629-9474.
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