Colorado Springs teen suffering from bone cancer celebrated as special guest at Rockies home opener
Belle Cress, 14, in light sweater, gets acquainted with her robotic dragon for the first time, at Cherokee Ranch and Castle in Sedalia, Colorado, thanks to a collaboration between Arrow Electronics and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Joining her are her mom and stepdad, Amber and Kyle Borata, Belle's brother, Justus, 11, and Belle's friend, Rhiannon, 13. March 23, 2021. Photo by Ellen Jaskol.
Courtesy of Ellen Jaskol
Amidst the crowd inside Coors Field Thursday afternoon were two special guests.
They were Belle, a 14 year old Colorado Spring native and her new mythical pet dragon Dusk. Due to COVID-19 protocols the tandem couldn’t take the field and be celebrated, but they still appeared on the Jumbotron.
The pair were treated as VIPs and, along with their family, watched the Rockies victory from Suite 29.
Belle has always wished to have a pet, but due to her ongoing battle with bone cancer, the dream of having a dog, cat, or even a bird has never been able to happen.
But with the help from Make-A-Wish Colorado and Arrow Electronics, Belle’s life-long wish was fulfilled with the soft pink and purple-scaled Dusk.
On March 23, Belle and her family were at the Cherokee Ranch & Castle Foundation in Sedalia for a virtual reality experience created by Emerge Studios based in Vancouver. However, following the journey she was greeted by her three foot, 17 pound companion Dusk.
“I feel happy … all the happy emotions,” she said in a press release.
Dusk was created by Arrow’s global network of manufacturers, suppliers, vendors, engineers and coders through Belle’s vision of what an ideal mythical dragon would look like.
Caleb Chung — who specializes in developing animatronics for films and robots for toy productions — led the team to turn Belle’s vision of Dusk into a reality with the help of Boise State University.
“The dragon was a passion project for all involved and that working together to bring Belle’s dream to life inspired the team during the dark days of the COVID-19 pandemic,” official said in the release.