Corporate Sponsorship Helps Make Dreams Come True

There are real, honest-to-goodness angels in South Dakota and they are making dreams come true for young people. Several of these angels work with us here at Daktronics.

Roxie Johnson, Daktronics Production Team, is one of these angels. She founded the Angels with a Dream event, which just marked its eighth year on 9 June.

Angels with a Dream benefits Make-A-Wish® of South Dakota. The event consists of a car show, silent auction, raffles, inflatables, face painting, food, adult beverages, and more. The car show features more than 50 cars every year, drawing between 1,000 to 1,500 people.

“I started this event in honor of my late husband,” Johnson explained. “He passed away from cancer 10 years ago and his dream was to help kids with cancer. He passed before he was able to fulfill his dream, so I am doing this in his memory.”

Johnson is impacted every year by the children she encounters who are fighting life-threatening disease and illness.

“Meeting these kids has been a life changing experience for myself and the volunteers,” she said. “The kids that we have granted wishes to and their families are amazing. These kids, no matter how tough their disease is, they have smiles on their faces and they strive to make each day better.”

The Angels with a Dream event helps to pay for the children and their families to take trips and fulfill wishes without worrying about the financial aspect.

“The trips or wishes the kids take help them take their minds off the treatments, doctor appointments, and even eases their pain,” Johnson explained. “We think our little flu bouts, headaches, or hiccups are overbearing, but we have nothing to complain about after seeing what these kids and their families go through physically, emotionally, and financially.”

Angels with a Dream has granted 12 wishes and raised more than $88,400 in the past seven years. Johnson discussed the event’s goals for the future.

“We really would like to reach the $100,000 goal. It would be a huge milestone for us,” she said. “We have been able to keep in contact with all but two of the families. Watching these kids each year has been amazing. We have one kid that finished his last chemo treatment and we celebrated that and his birthday at the 2017 event. Just knowing that we helped these kids and their families is a moment that none of us will ever forget.”

The corporate sponsorship will be used to help grant wishes to children with life-threatening illness.

This article is by Erin Smith
in Employee Communications.