HERKIMER — Make-a-Wish Central New York and Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield have partnered to make a 12-year-old’s wish to sleep with wolves come true. 

Serenity, who has a nervous system disorder, has loved animals — but especially wolves — since she was little. Over the upcoming weekend, she and her family will be camping at a wolf conservation center in West Salem, Massachusetts, where she will be able to meet and hold endangered wolves. She will also go to an aquarium to feed stingrays and take a behind-the-scenes tour of the aquarium.   

Serenity celebrated her upcoming trip at an Applebee’s in Herkimer, where she opened gifts to use on her trip, like a neon pink sleeping bag, hot dogs and hamburgers, Lay’s chips and stuffed wolves and huskies. 

Serenity’s mother Desiree said it means a lot to her to see so many people come together to help make Serenity’s wish come true. 

“My daughter’s been in love with wolves for four years now, but she hasn’t seen any in person, maybe from far away at the zoo,” Desiree said. “But this is absolutely amazing, it’s something that I couldn’t have done on my own. She really loves it, so it’s really cool that there are people out there that do things like this for people. I know she’s going to have a great time.”  

Kate Veley, director of corporate philanthropy for Make-A-Wish Central New York, said that Make-A-Wish was made aware of Serenity’s wish about a year ago, and the wish granters worked closely with Serenity and her family to figure out what her one true wish was.  

“It’s a four-night, five-day experience that’s solely focused on Serenity, to let her step away from all the medical things she’s been going through since she was nine years old,” Veley said.   

Eve Van de Wal, regional president for Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield, said it is a privilege to work with Make-A-Wish Central in order to help critically ill children have some normalcy and fun in their lives. 

“It’s one of the best things we do, to see the look on their faces when we get to give them the wish,” she said. “It’s challenging enough, for not only the child, but for the family, to deal with a life-threatening illness, so if we can make it that much easier to enjoy life and to have their wish come true, it doesn’t get any better than that.”