STIRLING, Ont. — Salina Wright will be spending her sixteenth birthday at Disney World in Florida thanks to a little help from the Stirling and District Lions Club and the Stirling Truck Show

Born both autistic and deaf and requiring round the clock care, Salina is the Club’s “Chosen Child” and has been offered their support in the past, but mother Lorna admits this is a very special treat.

“We were wondering how we were going to spend her sixteenth birthday,” she says, before she and husband Dave got the news recently from the local Lions. “We just can’t thank everyone enough.”

The trip for the family is being made possible by the Make a Wish Foundation in conjunction with Disney and Trucking For Wishes, an organization affiliated with the Lions Club as a result of the annual Father’s Day Stirling Truck Show. Salina was named the Lions Chosen Child just before the event last year.

And, Lorna says, her daughter’s birthday will undoubtedly be a memorable one. “And it wouldn’t have happened if the Lions Club didn’t put her name forward to Make a Wish,” she says.

The family will spend a week in Florida, visiting Sea World, Universal Studios and spending three days, including Salina’s birthday, at Cinderella’s Castle in Disney World.

Lion Ruth Potts says the club is involved in numerous activities within the community but “it is particularly the projects for kids that mean a lot to us. So we’re just super happy for her.”

Potts made the announcement last week with both Lorna and Salina in attendance at the regular Club meeting Tuesday night.