Southwest is honored to fly 50 families to Orlando for a magical 5-day all-expense paid trip to Walt Disney World for the 2017 Kidd’s Kids trip. This is the 11th year for Southwest to partner with Kidd’s Kids. The below is a guest blog post from Traci Liberto, the mother of two Kidd’s Kids participants.
I joined the Southwest Airlines Family in 1998 as an Employee in the finance department in Dallas and later transitioned to a job in Provisioning. I loved my job, made incredible friendships, and felt truly blessed by the Company. However, after nine years I left Southwest to pursue a new job that gave me the title of “stay at home mom.”
My oldest daughter, Melissa, was born with Cystic Fibrosis in 2007. Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a progressive, genetic disease that causes persistent lung infections and limits the ability to breathe over time. My husband and I now have two daughters, and our youngest daughter, Makayla, was also born with Cystic Fibrosis. Melissa and Makayla never get a break from CF. Their mornings start early with hour-long breathing treatments, where they inhale medicines that help open airways or thin mucus. These medicines include antibiotics to fight lung infections and therapies to help keep the airways clear. Melissa and Makayla do at least three different inhaled medicines in the mornings along with airway cleaners. Their treatments start all over again in the evenings, but if they are sick they will do additional treatments throughout the day. With every meal and snack, Melissa and Makayla also have to take a handful of medications for CF.
My daughters are both active girls! They attend public school, love playing outside, and enjoy singing and dancing. While my daughters don’t let having CF stop them from doing the things they love, there are days where the girls get really sick and have to miss out on a lot of fun things.
I share this story with you to help you understand just how thrilled my family is to be a part of the 2017 Kidd’s Kids trip! When I learned that my family would be traveling to Walt Disney World because of Kidd’s Kids and Southwest Airlines, I was beyond excited and started crying tears of happiness. My family has been looking forward to the time we will spend together and the memories that we will make since we were told that we were selected for the trip. My girls look forward to meeting all the Disney characters, visiting the Haunted Mansion and getting princess makeovers at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.
I can’t wait for them to have the chance to experience all of those things and more, and I can’t thank Southwest Airlines enough for all that you do for families like mine through your work with Kidd’s Kids.