For 12-year-old Nicolette, there’s nothing quite like a North Dakota summer. In those golden, carefree months between school years, she and her friends love to be outside, stay up late, and – above all – go swimming. But in April, just before Nicolette's favorite season, doctors diagnosed her with a brain tumor.

Doctors performed two surgeries and then set a six-week regimen of chemotherapy and radiation to treat Nicolette. Her community showered her and her family with support, and her dad’s coworkers even donated their sick leave so he could be home to take care of her. She longed to be outside playing with her friends, but instead, she had to spend what should have been carefree summer days focusing on getting well. When volunteer wish granters from the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of North Dakota asked Nicolette about her one true wish, she seized the chance to take back her summer.

Nicolette wished to have a backyard pool with a slide. Wish granters dove into action, rallying more than a dozen community businesses and organizations to help make Nicolette’s wish come true before the weather turned cold. Donations of tools, cement, fencing and other building supplies came rolling in. An army of volunteers assembled the pool, built a fence and even constructed a deck to hold the waterslide.

“The outpouring of generosity has been overwhelming,” Nicolette’s mom, Diane, said.

When the pool was complete, friends and community members helped Nicolette celebrate her wish with a pool party. She and her friends splashed and swam for hours, breaking occasionally for pizza and ice cream cake.

The day was a full of great memories – not only for Nicolette, but for her friends, family and the volunteers who made her wish come true.

“My daughter swam for hours with her friends,” Diane said, “and the joy on her face from all the people in the community who worked together to make that a special day for her was priceless.”

By Kathryn Roethel