When You Wish Upon a Star

Joba Chamberlain has never had a family vacation in his life. He never flew on an airplane until he was 18. He has never been to Disney World, but that's going to change this weekend.

The NY Times tells us Joba is doing something to ensure that families that are in the midst of hard times won't have to miss out on some joy in their lives.

“There are a lot of foundations, like Make-A-Wish, that do things for sick kids, and that’s great,” Chamberlain said. “I love that, and I do things like that. But a lot of things go unseen about parents that live paycheck to paycheck and make it by, but they don’t have anything extra to go take a trip.

“I’ve never taken a family vacation my entire life. I started thinking, I want to do something for a family — not necessarily that has someone sick, but someone who works for a living, pays their bills, provides for their family but doesn’t have enough extra money to do something that they want to do.”

Joba is still very close to his Lincoln, NE roots and stays in touch with his high school coach, Jerome Erlich, who is also a gym teacher at local elementary school. He recently asked Erlich and Deb Dabbert, the school's principal, to select a student they felt was worthy of accompanying him on a trip to the happiest place on Earth.

They select 5th grader Kristan Martin, who along with his parents, brother, and sister will be in Orlando this weekend with Joba. Very cool!

Share