Night on Haunted Hill is produced every year so that the Make-A-Wish Club can make one lucky child’s wish come true.
This year, the �Wizard of Oz�-themed haunted house raised enough proceeds to make the wish of a four-year-old girl named Sierra come true.
Sierra, whose name was witheld for privacy purposes, is from North Versailles, Allegheny County.
By Kristy Schweikarth,
Staff Writer
Night on Haunted Hill is produced every year so that the Make-A-Wish Club can make one lucky child’s wish come true.
This year, the �Wizard of Oz�-themed haunted house raised enough proceeds to make the wish of a four-year-old girl named Sierra come true.
Sierra, whose name was witheld for privacy purposes, is from North Versailles, Allegheny County.
Like many little girls her age, she loves princesses, dancing, Barney, pizza, chicken, reading and swimming. She also likes the Cooking Channel.
Currently, her wish is torn between going to Disney World and taking a trip to the beach where she can swim and play in the sand, according to Jill Cheetham-Mitchell, development coordinator for Make-A-Wish Foundation for Greater Pennsylvania and Southern West Virginia.
The check for the Make-A-Wish Foundation was presented to Cheetham-Mitchell at a special dinner on Tuesday November 14, 2006.
�I absolutely love coming out to colleges and schools and meeting the students one-on-one and instead of just getting a piece of paper in the mail saying, �Here’s our money, we want to grant a wish,� it’s nice to get out and put faces with the events and to the donations,� said Cheetham-Mitchell
�It’s nice to know that the group cared so much to plan something like this to follow up and say…we�re so proud that we�ve raised a wish, and we really want to show the whole campus what we�ve done,� added Cheetham-Mitchell.
�The event is great, the wish kids loved the haunted house,� Cheetham-Mitchell said of Night on Haunted Hill.
Kathy Fajt, administrative assistant for student services, said, �I�m really proud of each and every student that becomes a member, that is a member, and the legacy that students leave behind that are members, and their continued involvement.�
Tiffany Brattina, a senior and president of Make-A-Wish Club said, �This is by far the best moment of the four years that I have been here.�
�Giving them that check and making it possible within a year and a half, and working with all of these people has been one of the best experiences of my life,� she said.
The dinner was held not only to present the check to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and to honor those individuals who have worked to make this years event take place, but also to present an award to honor Darren Achtezhn, director of food services, for his hard work, time, compassion and selflessness.
Achtezhn said the award was �a complete surprise.�
�I had absolutely no idea. Most of the things that we do are just there to lend a helping hand, and truly the awards belong to the students that are out there,� Achtezhn said. �They truly make it happen.�
Carla Flowers, a sophomore, summed up her feelings about the night:
�Without everyone’s help this could not have happened, so I�m so thankful that everyone volunteered to do what they did and without them it wouldn’thave happened,� said Flowers.
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