After more than 25-years of granting dreams to critically and chronically ill children one man is preparing to retire.
“My love, other than giving the dreams away is raising the money to do the dreams,” said Dream Factory of Northwest Missouri Volunteer Ron Dougan. “I love bringing the money so we can do these things. I’ve tried my best to do fundraising.”
Dougan helped to found the Dream Factor chapter of Northwest Missouri. In his years with the Dream Factory he has helped to grant more than 100 dreams to children dealing with an illness.
“I started with a part of the Kansas City chapter, we were the North part of Kansas City here in St. Joe and I served as the president of the North chapter which was a part of the Kansas City one then,” he said. “Later we formed as part of Northwest Missouri.”
Northwest Missouri Dream Factory Vice President Terry Parker said the organization is a way to give happiness to children between the age of 3 and 18 struggling with health issues.
“Well we can’t give them their health back but what we can do it put a smile on their face,” said Parker. “Families are stressed out, their kids are stressed out, if we can give them some relief then it’s great you know.”
Sunday during BaconFest at the Civic Arena the Dream Factory presented a dream to a Central Freshman girl named Stevie dealing with a connective tissue disorder. Stevie’s dream was to go to Hawaii.
“They don’t have to think about doctors, they don’t have to think about needles, they don’t have to think about tests,” said Dream Factory President Rita Hook. “It’s just time for the family to just forget about everything and have fun with each other.”
Stevie’s dream of going to Hawaii was one of the last dreams Dougan will get to see before his retirement, but his final dream has yet to be granted.
“I am working on one personally myself,” said Dougan. “It will probably be done over the Christmas break when the little girl’s sister is home from college, she wants to swim with the Dolphins in Florida.”