Mary Kelly’s room bustled with excitement and energy as family and friends decked out in glitter and sequence arrived for Casino Night.
They gathered around Kelly, eager to join her for a game of pai gow, the cards for which were distributed by a bedside dealer — Burlington High School graduate and former DreamCatcher Machias Perez who now works at Catfish Bend Casino — who came to Southeast Iowa Regional Hospice House just for Kelly.
“It’s very, very special because it’s something Mom loves and we all get to be here and partake,” Dari Good, one of Kelly’s four children, said as she blinked from behind a set of long, pink eyelashes she wore for the occasion, a tray full of empty flamingo cocktail glasses that she had been playfully pretending to spill on guests resting at her side. “We just showed up and had a good time because the DreamCatchers did all the work for us. They’ve been great hosts and hostesses.”
Burlington High School’s DreamCatcher’s club is a chapter of a national foundation that empowers students and their communities to fulfill hospice patients’ end-of-life wishes and dreams.
The club members and club advisor Lorie Bray learned from a hospice care social worker that Kelly loved the casino. They had just two days to make Kelly’s dream come true, and they pulled it off without a hitch.
As Kelly and her family played cards and reminisced about good times, BHS juniors Traeh Pender and William Woodard stood by ready to help with refreshments. Earlier, they’d been joined by fellow club members Hunter Pender and Kingsley Miller, also juniors, who had helped set up before leaving for sports practice.
All have been in DreamCatchers since their freshman year.
In their time with the club, they’ve never turned down a dream request.
“It can be something really little or something really big,” Woodard said.
Requests have ranged from transportation, including a flight to the Philippines, and organized two weddings: one between a patient and their long-time partner, and another for a patient’s grandchildren.
“This one lady, she wanted to see her grandchildren get married, and we brought them there so she could watch them get married and celebrate with them,” Traeh Pender said.
Miller recalled one patient who asked for Archie comics and word searches. Another wanted to go home alongside his family and touch the soil he had farmed for so many years one last time.
For yet another wish, the DreamCatchers brought an Oktoberfest feast to a woman who no longer was able to attend her favorite event.
With each wish granted, no matter how big or small, the group members are grateful for being able to have been a part of their lives.
“For our most recent dream, what kind of almost brought me to tears, what gave me the chills was that the lady we were doing the dream for, she said, ‘I was so nervous to go, but after this, I’m just ready now. I’m content,’ ” Miller said.
“Life is beautiful,” Kelly had told her family and friends as she addressed the room. Before the night’s end, the words to “Sweet Caroline” filled Kelly’s room and the hallway outside as all in attendance sang her one of her favorite songs.
Just three days later, Kelly passed away.
TEAM WORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK
Wishes like Casino Night are made possible by donations, fundraisers, and the will of the small but mighty club.
“It’s all hands on deck,” Miller said. “It’s more team work than group work. We are a team. We work together.”
Traeh Pender, who is a co-president of the group, said it is not
BCSD April Newsletter
uncommon for her and fellow co-president Woodard to be ticking off items on the to-do list via text message late into the night to make sure wishes are fulfilled.
“This is four people doing something for one person, so it’s very personal,” Woodard added.
DreamCatchers since has gained a fifth member, sophomore Jaely Hines, who decided to join after seeing a post about the Casino Night wish on social media.
“I saw the Casino Night and it was kind of just like, I want to be a part of that,” Hines said. “They’re really doing something to make these people happy.”
Wishes most often are not publicized due to privacy concerns, and information about a wish is shared only with the consent of the wish recipient and/or their family. This can make it difficult to spread awareness of the club, Woodward said, but members make up for it by presenting to various organizations and participating in community events.
The four juniors said being in the club is rewarding and they highly recommend it to other students.
“It’s a lot of joy, because it might be sad for you in the moment, it might be sad for the family, but when you are on the patient side of things, most of the time you can see the joy that comes with what you’re providing and that brings a lot of second-hand joy with it,” Woodard said.
“I think this is the best club I’ve been in,” Hunter Pender said.
Those wanting to join DreamCatchers may email Lorie.Bray@bcsds.org/.
