An 18-year-old Burns, Wyoming, girl with a rare heart disease has been given a Make-A-Wish Wyoming grant to go to New Zealand this November.
But as Blair Sanchez was at the ceremony to receive her wish, she listened to all the other stories of children with needs and Make-A-Wish dreams, and decided she needed to look beyond her own life.
“There were three or four other families there and I met all these kids. There was a 9-year-old that had brain cancer,” she said. “And they had this whole pamphlet of all the kids around Wyoming that were waiting for their wishes to be granted … from leukemia, cancer, to heart diseases, skin diseases to autoimmune diseases.”
As the teen read through the 32 or so names who remained without their wish, she turned to her mom and told her that she wanted to sponsor a wish for someone else.
Her mom asked her how she was going to do that. They both knew that a typical wish costs about $10,000.
“Right there I went and asked Troy (Thompson) if I could donate the funds from my pig to the Make-A-Wish Foundation,” she said.
Now four months later, Sanchez is reaping that seed of desire in a big way thanks to a generous governor and his wife and others.
Thompson, a member of the Make-A-Wish Wyoming Board, Laramie County commissioner, and veterinarian assured her that could happen.
Blair Sanchez, right, and Slate did some warm-up showing at a Colorado event earlier this summer. (Courtesy Blair Sanchez) 
Blair Sanchez shares her personal story and desire to benefit Make-A-Wish Wyoming with her hog sale. (Courtesy Blair Sanchez) 
Blair Sanchez shows her hog in a competition earlier this summer. (Courtesy Blair Sanchez) 
Blair Sanchez had a poster made for placement at the fair to share her desire to benefit Make-A-Wish Wyoming. (Courtesy Blair Sanchez)
Something ‘Special’
Sanchez’s desire impressed Thompson, who applauds her understanding of the benefits of the program, and willingness to not only be a recipient of a Make-A-Wish grant, but also a benefactor for another child.
“That’s a pretty special situation,” he said.
For Sanchez, the pig she was raising was also kind of special.
As a longtime 4-H member and participant — her mom has worked for 4-H in Evanston, Laramie County and Colorado — Sanchez said showing animals always has been what her family does.
The family currently owns special sheep ewes and goats specifically bred as show animals.
Sanchez has shown horses, cattle, and other critters — but pigs were not on her mom’s list, though they have shown a few in the past.
After the family moved from Evanston to Burns, there was not a facility on their farm for pigs. However, Sanchez said a Nebraska farmer asked her if she would help him and show a pig.
Her family agreed and added a barn with a concrete floor for her to prepare “Slate” for the fair.
“I had him from February to August,” she said. The pig, a “crossbreed,” bred for the “market” went from 60 pounds to 241 pounds at his weigh-in at the Laramie County Fair earlier this month.
At the fair, Sanchez said she made a poster stating her intention to give half the proceeds from her pig’s sale to Make-A-Wish Wyoming and posted it around the grounds.
However, the poster said nothing about her own experience as a “Make-A-Wish kid.”
Taking The Mic
When it was time for the auction, she asked for the microphone and told her own story.
“They gave me the microphone in the sale ring, and I basically just told everyone that I was a Make-A-Wish kid and what had happened to me and asked them to help me support another kid,” she said. “Not a whole lot of people in Burns and Cheyenne knew I had a heart disease or knew I was a Wish kid because it’s not something that I like to say dictates my life.”
Sanchez said that in 2019, as a seventh grader, she was into sports and loved volleyball, wrestling and lifting weights, but started to have seizures and spells in gym class.
She had tests and spent a lot of time in and out of hospitals going through four heart surgeries.
She was put in six clinical trials for her condition.
“They basically told me that I have a heart disease, and they don’t know what it is,” she said. “They tried everything that they could to fix it and we’re completely out of options now.”
She received an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator that was implanted in her chest that detects and stops life-threatening heart arrhythmias and doubles as a pacemaker.
One of her physicians recommended her as a candidate for the Make-A-Wish program.
She was told she had to quit sports and stop showing livestock and not to ride her horse. But her love of animals kept her in the ring.
“I continued showing livestock and riding horses,” she said.
Gordon’s Purchase
After sharing her story this month in the fair sale ring, her hog’s auction price was bid up to $12,500 — Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon and his wife, Jenny, and the Wyoming Hunger Initiative claiming “Slate” as their prize.
Sanchez said “add-on” contributions to the Gordon’s bid are not yet fully tallied, but instead of giving half to Make-A-Wish Wyoming she hopes to provide much more.
“I figured we could just give $10,000 plus all the add-ons. For sure, we have at least $2,000 in add-ons,” she said. “So, I’m hoping we’re about to hit like $15,000 to $20,000 as a total that I can donate to Make-A-Wish.”
This month, the Burns High School graduate started studies at Fort Scott Community College in Fort Scott, Kansas. She is studying animal science and serving on the livestock judging team.
Initially, she hoped to go to Switzerland to hike and kayak with her own Make-A-Wish Wyoming trip, but her college schedule did not allow that destination. Now she is headed to New Zealand in November with family members.
“We’re going to go look at sheep farms and go rafting and all this crazy outdoor stuff that I am super excited about,” she said.
Thompson said most people consider that the Make-A-Wish program is for children with terminal illnesses, but it also is for those with critical illnesses and conditions that become a necessary focus and change people’s lives — such as Sanchez’s case.
“It gives the kids and the family a chance to take their mind off of the disease,” he said. “One of the things we talk about with Make-A-Wish is how wonderful it is to bring families back to just being families.”
He said Sanchez’s gift will make a difference in another young person’s life.
“It’s a pretty remarkable story from a pretty remarkable kid,” he said.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
