We left early in the morning to go to the airport.  I loved it when the plane went in the sky.  It was fun.  When we go there I was so happy.  It was really hot.  We took a car ride to Hawks Cay Resort.  It was so beautiful. 

The condo we stayed at was fancy.  My brother Ryan and I had a room to share and our beds had grass skirts on them.  After unpacking we took a walk around the resort.  We saw lots of coconut trees and lots of lizards.

When we got to the main hotel we saw the dolphins.  I was so excited.  I couldn’t wait to swim with them.  After our walk we went swimming, the water was so warm.  I got my hair braided from a lady by the pool one day but it fell out but it looked good while it lasted.

The next day we went swimming at the Pirate Ship Pool it was cool, it had cannons that would shoot water. After lunch was when I got to swim with the dolphins.  My dad and I had to put on wet suits; they were really tight.  The trainers told us about the dolphins.   Theirs names were Bala, Nemo and Sebastian.  My dad and I got in the water with the trainer then the dolphin swam right up to us.  The dolphin’s skin was soft and smooth and it felt like rubber.  It was cool.  The trainer taught me different hand signs to make the dolphins do tricks.  I made it jump in the air, clap its fins, dance and bring me a prize; the prize was a piece of sea grass.  The trainer also let me feed the dolphins, they like fish, ice cubes and jello.

My favorite part was when the dolphin kissed my cheek and I kissed it back.  What was neat at Hawks Cay was I was able to see the dolphins every day.  Kim and Jerry Stevens drove from their house in Florida to visit us (Jerry is the State Director of B4K).  Ryan and I had fun with them.  We did a lot of fun things together, we swam, goofed around, seen the sights of Key West and lots of dolphins.  I had a blast with Wanda and I met some other kids to play with too.

Thank you to Kim and Jerry who came to see me there and for letting me “smoke” the tires on his car, too bad it’s broken now.  Thank you to Wanda at Hawks Cay for all your help.  Thank you Benefit4Kids for granting my Outdoor Wish of swimming with the dolphins.

Dear B4K Family,

On behalf of Whitney, Ryan and Melanie I just want to say thank you so very very much for granting Whitney’s wish. If you could have seen the look of joy on her face the first time she saw the dolphins, it was priceless.  Besides Whitney’s swim we also had other adventures.  We along with our new friends Kim and Jerry Stevens, traveled to Key West, swam in all the pools at the resort and met many wonderful people.

Down the road from Hawks Cay Resort is the Dolphin Research Center.   On a whim we decided to check it out, the folks there were outstanding, when we mentioned we were on Whitney’s wish trip they looked up the B4K site and came back telling us our admission was free and did Whitney want to swim with their dolphins?  Wow, what special people.

A big thank you to Wanda Whitehouse and everybody at Hawks Cay Resort and Dolphin Connection.  It’s hard to put into words how much we appreciated everything that was done for us there.

To Kim and Jerry Stevens you guys are awesome, here’s to a start of a long friendship.  Linda, thank you for everything you’ve done to help make the trip smooth, Joy, Whitney love her surprise, we were totally shocked when it came in the mail.  So to everyone involved thank you for helping to “Make Memories”.

Sincerely, 

Ray Jacobs

Benefit4Kids Notes:

Hawks Cay Resort donated their services to the family for the entire week, a heartfelt thank you goes to them from B4K for their generosity.  Thank you to Kyle and Wanda for all your help on this, it is greatly appreciated, the two of you went above and beyond to make this happen for Whitney.  www.hawkscayresort.com

Millennium Steering sponsored Whitney’s Outdoor Wish, a heartfelt thank you from B4k on their generosity.