Seventeen-year-old Valerie is a young rodeo star. She grew up on a ranch in Idaho and by high school became a champion barrel racer. Valerie asked wish granters with the Make-A-Wish Foundation^® of Idaho to send her to the Calgary Stampede – a 10-day summer festival in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, that includes musical performances, rodeos, horse racing, stock shows and stage shows. The teen rider later explained, “I love the sport of rodeo and going to the Calgary Stampede had always been one of my dreams.”

Thanks to sponsorship from UAW-GM, Valerie, her parents, Glen and Linda, and her siblings flew to Canada. They stayed at The Fairmont Palliser Hotel, a historical landmark in Calgary which Valerie called “one of the greatest hotels in Canada.”

The Calgary Stampede proved to be all that Valerie had hoped for. She attended the rodeo, which was the focus of her wish, but she experienced much more. During the Calgary Stampede’s opening parade, Valerie rode a horse while carrying the American flag. She also watched the chuckwagon races, which pits drivers with teams of horses and a covered wagon against each other on a dirt track. The rodeo had plenty of action for the attentive teen, including barrel racing, calf roping, bull riding, bareback bronco riding and trick riders.

Outside of Calgary, the family visited Spruce Meadows, a world-famous complex for horse-jumping tournaments. They also rented an RV and took a two-day tour of the Canadian Rockies and Banff National Park. Banff is Canada’s first national park and boasts mountains, glaciers, lakes, mineral hot springs, canyons and plenty of wildlife.

All in all, the experience had Valerie beaming. “The people here treated us like kings," she said. "The Canadian people really went out of their way to make my wish a huge success. This is truly an event I will never forget.”