JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Dream Team has been assembled and college football season awaits.
Twelve area residents between the ages of 5 and 17 officially became ambassadors for the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl on Tuesday morning as part of a tie-in with the Jacksonville-based Dreams Come True organization. It is the third Dream Team signing class.
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The kids got the signing day treatment, with tours of the Gator Bowl offices and TIAA Bank Field, as well as their own Dream Team jerseys.
Their tasks are aplenty, with the biggest one an easy one — have fun.
Their assignments carry throughout the college football season, with their first big one coming quickly when Boise State faces Florida State at TIAA Bank Field on Aug. 31.
Among the honorees on Tuesday were Joey Cotromano (12), Amelia Cregg (6), Aydan Dolan (6), Jordan Elliott (11), Keyden Hall-Adams (13), Anna Hopson (5), Savannah Lahtinen (8), Camden Lang (15), Joshua Ribeiro (12), Allen Roberson (17), Logan Silva (9) and Francoise Thornton (8).
Silva is actually a milestone dreamer for the organization, said Sherri Criswell, the executive director of Dreams Come True. When Silva completed his Atlantis Dream last April, he became the 4,000th dreamer for the organization.
“It was awesome, these kids are so amazing. Overcomers for sure,” she said.
The dreamers face a variety of significant health issues. Several have battled brain tumors and leukemia. Others have more rare and complicated health problems that run the gamut from spinal injuries to Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease, EEC syndrome, Thalassemia major, Ewing’s sarcoma and Prader-Willi syndrome.
Those diagnoses haven’t stopped them or kept them from smiling.
The signees will get to take part in a slew of game-day activities surrounding events in Jacksonville and leading up to the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl on Jan. 2, 2020.
Dreams Comes True began in 1984 in Jacksonville and has since made dreams into reality for more than 4,000 children with life-threatening illnesses between the ages of 2½ and 18 years old.