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A wish comes true
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OVERWHELMED: Suzie Mazzocco, 9, gives her grandmother, Irene Consiglio, a hug after the child was surprised with tickets to a Miley Cyrus concert. The tickets and other gifts were presented at an assembly at Struthers Elementary School on Wednesday. Suzie has a rare bone-growth disorder that results in dwarfism. She has had 17 surgeries.
Struthers school networks to unite Miley Cyrus and student with rare disorder.
By JEANNE STARMACK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
STRUTHERS — Suzie Mazzocco likes a dirt-bike ride with her brothers, the beach, Disney princesses, movies, video games and Hannah Montana.
She’s a typical 9-year-old that way.
Suzie has Spondyloepiphyseal Dysplasia, though — a rare disorder of bone growth that results in short-trunk disproportionate dwarfism.
She’s had 17 surgeries, which began shortly after her birth. In that way, the Struthers Elementary School third-grader is anything but typical.
The surgeries were necessary, explained Laurie Serenko, an intervention specialist at the school, to make room for her growing organs.
Rods and pins have been inserted multiple times to stretch and extend her spine.
While she was dealing with her disorder, her family tried to make Suzie’s biggest wish come true — she wants to meet Miley Cyrus, the actress and singer who plays the lead on the Disney Channel show “Hannah Montana.”
Make A Wish, the foundation that tries to grant wishes for children with serious illnesses, couldn’t help her with that — there’s a three-year waiting list to meet Cyrus.
Instead, the foundation sent her, her parents Kelley and Tony, and her two brothers, Tony Jr. and Michael, to Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. They went in October — that’s when she got to meet her favorite princesses, Snow White and Cinderella.
It’s also when she discovered she loved the ocean and the beach.
“She didn’t want to come home,” said Kelley. “She wanted to miss the plane.”
Suzie didn’t get to see Miley Cyrus at Disneyland, though. So staff at her school took matters into their own hands about that.
They got the idea a week ago, said Serenko, and they started making calls. By Wednesday, it all came together.
Suzie will be going to Cyrus’ concert Sunday in Cleveland. Radio station Hot 101-FM provided tickets for her and her family.
Other donations for Suzie came quickly, in a matter of days, from businesses in the community, said Serenko.
Suzie and her third- and fourth-grade classmates at Struthers Elementary gathered in the gym Wednesday morning, where Hot 101 personalities were waiting with the tickets they said were won by a child at the school through a “contest.”
Surprise, it was Suzie who won. She’ll be able to hear her idol sing her favorite song — “The Climb.” With lyrics such as “Ain’t about how fast I get there, ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side, it’s the climb,” that song “is about me,” she’s told her mother.
She was lifted to the stage in front of her classmates to where her family was waiting — her parents and brothers along with her grandmother and several aunts, uncles and cousins.
She was a bit nervous from all the attention. But after a reassuring hug from her grandmother, Irene Consiglio of Struthers, she acknowledged her excitement.
“I thought it would be great to go,” she said about the concert.
Sunday will begin with her and Kelley getting their hair and nails done at La Luna Salon in Boardman. Breakfast will be delivered there.
Limousine service to and from the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland will be provided by Barley House & Harry Buffalo in Cleveland.
She’ll go to dinner in Cleveland at Harry Buffalo.
Presents Wednesday included flowers and balloons from Nemenz IGA; a gift basket of Miley Cyrus accessories, CDs and clothes from Wal Mart, Best Buy, Kmart and the SES PTA; and a party courtesy of Pizza Joe’s and McAllister’s Ice Cream.
Kmart also gave Suzie a digital camera. She’s promised to bring back a lot of pictures.