Friends and family of Isaac Crane gathered in the parking lot of Mead High School in front of a large camper with a sign that read “Happy Wish Day!”
Isaac Crane, an 8-year-old boy from Mead has Type 1 Spinal Muscular Dystrophy. In January MHS hosted a wish-week , where they raised over $15,000 for Isaac to help him achieve his dream of going to Disney World.
Disney World’s closure due to pandemic restrictions postponed the trip. Jeremiah Crane, Isaac’s father, feels as if this wish has been a long time coming.
“It’s such a relief, and Isaac’s so excited. I did a countdown five days ago. I was like ‘you’re gonna get your bus in five days’ and he was like ‘woo-hoo’ because he can’t speak words, but he can make sounds,” Jeremiah Crane said.
The Disney World trip is currently not possible via airplane due to Isaac’s illness and the vaccine mandates, according to Jeremiah Crane. However, this did not deter the family from finding a way to make Isaac’s dream come true, they just took a different path.
Jeremiah Crane loves to camp and has always wanted to take his son, but Isaac’s illness prevented the outing until now.
Capri Goodsmith, who works with Make-A-Wish, has helped ensure that Isaac gets everything he wants from his wish. When Goodsmith discovered his love for camping and travel, she connected with Matthew Roush, owner of Survivor RV. A renovated camping bus became Isaac’s new wish so he could not only camp with his family, but make the trip to Disney World.
“So the main goal of this is to get us to Disney World, so we can take ourselves to Disney World and we can camp along the way. But I grew up camping with my family, and I have always wanted to take my son. I’ve been able to take my daughter, but I’ve never been able to take my son, so this is like a wish for me too,” Jeremiah Crane said.
“We met the family about six weeks ago. So this has only been about only six weeks. We put about 150 hours of labor into this,” Roush said.
The major task in renovating this bus was making sure that it would be reliable for Isaac and his family.
It has a sink inside, ties for Isaac’s chair, a movable iPad stand, counters that Isaac chose the colors for, lights embedded in the ceiling to emulate stars and is solar powered.
“It needs to be reliable and this has multiple ways of being charged to be able to run Isaac’s equipment overnight … We like the off grid style setup because it adds simplicity to the camper’s reliability and it’s just neat. It's nice to not have to get somewhere and start a generator,” Roush said.
Goodsmith said watching Isaac and his family receive his gift was the most joyous feeling in the world.
“I think it's really cool to see Isaac and his family’s reaction is the most joyous feeling ever, but then the people that come together to help and donate their time, kindness and generosity is one of the best feelings in the world,” Goldsmith said.
Goodsmith feels lucky to be working at Make-A-Wish and helping kids and lives for the moment where the child finally realizes their dream is coming true.
“I think I have cried more in the past 12 months than I have in my entire life, but it's tears of joy. It’s bringing people this feeling and this experience they never thought they would get in their life and who is better than somebody who deserves it. Somebody who is a warrior, these kids are incredible and they deserve it,” Goldsmith said.
While it was not the path the Crane family expected to get to Disney World, receiving their bus today gets them one step closer to their goal.
“No matter what your dream is, your wish is, you can always do it. Especially with the family and friends and community, we can all do it together,” Jeremiah Crane said.
