Make a Wish: 6-Year-Olds See Dreams Come True as Pageant Princesses

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Santee’s Sonrise Church saw a miracle of sorts Friday night.

Two 6-year-old “Make-A-Wish” friends from Santee and La Mesa stole the show at the Miss Santee and Miss La Mesa Pageant to the delight of their families and an audience of 400.

Ireland, the first Miss La Mesa pageant princess with Down syndrome, shared center stage with her best friend Riley, a Santee princess more than two years in remission from cancer.

Riley—the daughter of Janell and James Guilbeaux with an 8-year-old brother, Reef—stood before a microphone like the other 13 princesses but didn’t say her goal was to be Miss America.

“When I grow up, I want to be a pediatric oncologist,” said the Carlton Oaks Elementary kindergartner.

Outgoing Miss Teen Santee Casey Maynard led Ireland to the microphone and later said the Northmont Elementary kindergartner wants to be a mermaid or a dancer—“or a dancing mermaid.”

The girls became best friends through the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

But if you ask the pair, they are sisters—“Wish Sisters.”

“The doctors said she would never talk or walk ever again,” said Ireland’s mother, Nichole Hack. “Well, you guessed it, Ireland is doing both with a smile.”

Ireland had open-heart surgery at age 2 and about a year later suffered a massive stroke that left her with brain damage and almost total left-side paralysis.

“Ireland has overcome so many obstacles in her life that for her to be able to even stand on the stage is such a huge blessing,” Hack said.

March is Down Syndrome Awareness Month and Hack said she hopes Ireland’s participation in the pageant would help raise awareness in the community.

“Any person that has Down syndrome is not much different than you or I,” she said. “They will do the same things that you or I will do; it might take them a little longer to do them, but they will do them.

“Like anyone who is a little different than the person next to you, they just want to be accepted. They want to show you what a great friend they can be. They have dreams and wishes and talents, just like you do.”

Ireland’s favorite part of the night on stage was dancing at the beginning of the pageant—her huge smile showed that.

“I think she would stay on the stage all night if they let her,” her mother said.

Hack said if it were possible, Ireland would live in Disneyland with other princesses.

The Miss Santee and Miss La Mesa pageant brought at least part of that dream to life Friday night.