BRIDGEPORT — Spending three days at Disney World, one day at SeaWorld and one day at Universal Orlando will be a dream come true for Paiverly Ricker, a 2-year-old Wheeling girl with cancer.

On Aug. 1, 2023, Ricker and her family received the news that she had been diagnosed with a blood cancer called acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Since then, Ricker’s parents Tommy and Jessica Ricker have been with her in and out of the hospital for various visits and stays.

A Special Wish Foundation Ohio Valley Chapter held a wish reveal Thursday evening at The Fat Apple in Bridgeport, granting a wish for Paiverly. She will receive a trip to Disney World for three days, one day at SeaWorld and one day at Universal Orlando in Florida. This trip will include a private villa for the family rather than a hotel stay.

Jessica said this wish granted to Paiverly is a way for the family to get back to normal and for her to live a normal kid’s life. She emphasized how excited Paiverly is for this trip.

“She could actually be a normal kid,” Jessica said, “and to get out and go see her favorite character and Disney. Disney is every kid’s dream eventually, so it’ll just be a nice time to get there with our family and to do that.”

Annmarie O’Grady, executive director of A Special Wish Ohio Valley Chapter, said granting wishes to children from birth to age 21 with life-threatening conditions is important to her because it brings them hope and happiness.

“They go through so much,” she said. “Their lives consist of hospital stays, visits, tests, chemo, radiation. So to be able to give them something that brings hope and happiness, whether it’s a trip for a week or if it’s something … something they can have and remember, that’s all we want to do.”

“A Special Wish Foundation is the only major wish granting organization in the U.S. that grants wishes to qualifying infants, children and adolescents from birth up to the age of 21,” according to its website. The Ohio Valley chapter is based in St. Clairsville and serves astern Ohio and the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia.

Tommy and Jessica came up with the idea for a Disney trip for Paiverly after Jessica’s brother brought a castle home from Disney, and Paiverly played with it and knew the characters. They asked her, “Do you want to go visit Mickey and his castle?”

O’Grady mentioned that when the Ricker family visited the office, Paiverly saw pictures of other wish kids at Disney and kept saying, “I want to go to Mickey’s house.”

Jesscia said Paiverly will be ecstatic for this trip, as she was when she opened the Mickey Mouse themed backpack gifted to her at the reveal. Tommy added that it will create memories through a hard time.

“She’s a very emotional child,” Jessica said. “She hugged that and said, ‘I love it.’ She’s just very thankful for everything at such a young age.”