When dreams come true

By ZENDA FARRELL| Milton Independent Staff Writer

Emily Woodward plans on becoming a veterinarian and was provided the opportunity to spend the day with Dr. Philip van Harreveld, owner of the Vermont Large Animal Clinic in Milton. The Make a Wish-Foundation made her dream come true and Emily, who was born with cystic fibrosis, was surprised even further when she got to meet Oscar, the star of the movie Hidalgo.

In the spirit of Christmas cheer, the Vermont Large Animal Clinic, located on Lake Road in Milton, recently made dreams come true for Emily Woodward, an effervescent 9-year-old girl with an infectious smile and a love of nature. She wants to be a veterinarian one day because she wants to help animals.

Emily was born with CF (cystic fibrosis), an inherited disease that causes thick, sticky mucus to build up in the lungs and digestive tract. This most common type of chronic lung disease in children and young adults results in persistent lung infections and serious digestion problems. Millions of Americans carry the defective CF gene but do not have any symptoms because a person must inherit two defective CF genes, one from each parent to be affected. Emily undergoes respiratory treatments daily and has been hospitalized for 2 weeks at a time on 4 separate occasions because of this ailment.

Emily had a dream - her dream was to ride with a veterinarian for a day and the people at the Vermont Large Animal Clinic made her wish come true. Milton resident, Philip van Harreveld, DVM, MS, owner of VLAC and his staff collaborated to make this day a special one for Emily, a day she would never forget. As a bonus, they had a pink fleece vest made for her with her name and the hospital logo embroidered on it, to wear on farm calls.

In the morning, Emily rode with Dr. Jenny Wilkinson who completed her internship at VLAC in June 2006 and has been working full-time with the hospital since then. Their first stop of the day was at Taproot Stable in Hinesburg where Emily was allowed to ride Snowflake, one of the horses on the farm. From there they went to Red Road Farm, owned by John Fusco, a conservator of rare American Indian horse breeds and writer of the screenplay for the Disney film Hidalgo. Red Road Farm, dedicated to preserving historic tribal horse strains, is also the home of Hidalgo himself (aka Oscar), a star of the movie. Riding Hidalgo was a surprise for Emily and in her words, “riding Hidalgo was my favorite part of the day, mostly!!” Hidalgo was gracious enough to give Emily his autograph, a hoofprint that she plans to hang on her wall as a souvenir and John Fusco gave her a Breyer figurine of the paint horse, inscribed with the words, For Emily ~ with love and blessings.

From here, Jen and Emily went to a small animal clinic in Williston, owned by Jen’s husband, Dr. Joel English, for a pizza party and to visit with the four legged patients there, of course. “Emily was very talkative,” said Dr. Jen. “We drove a lot and the phone rang all the time but we had fun. She helped me with the horses, she was my assistant today!”

Then it was back on the road, this time with Dr. Phil and the next stop was Sue Shirland’s farm in Colchester where Emily watched Sue put on a dressage exhibition with her horse Pip, a Swedish Warmblood who recently underwent colic surgery but is back in training and competing at Grand Prix level. Emily also assisted Dr. Phil with a shockwave treatment at the farm.

The grand finale of the storybook day was a party for Emily, her family and friends, held at the large animal clinic, complete with cake and presents, including a Breyer figurine of Spirit, a horse from another Disney movie written by Fusco and a veterinary figurine to accompany Spirit.

According to Dr. Phil, “The idea of sponsoring the Make a Wish Foundation or other charity on a yearly basis was lingering around for some time at the clinic. We just never had time to really make anything happen, so when Ray Bernier, the owner of Valleyview Stable in Milton, called us about Emily it seemed like the perfect start. The day was planned by Karen Cyr, the receptionist at the clinic and things sort of came together at the last minute to be honest with you.”

“It was a very special day for Emily and for us,” said Emily’s mom Carol, who followed Emily through out the day by driving her car behind the fanfare.

Emily lives in Swanton with her parents, Steve and Carol Woodward and her 5 year old brother, Adam.