POCATELLO — Emory Champion, adorned in a Disney Princess Snuggie and holding a long pink balloon as if it were a scepter, beamed Thursday morning knowing she was going to get her wish.

    Through the fundraising efforts of an Idaho State University class and through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Emory, 6, will be going to Disney World this spring with her family.

    “I am overwhelmed,” said Kasey Champion, Emory’s mother. “We are blessed to have all this support. I am thankful there is Make-A-Wish.”

    Champion said the health issues her daughter is dealing with is something doctors have been working to pinpoint for roughly four years, since Emory was 2 years old. She said they have narrowed it to a blood ailment called mitochondria metabolic disorder, a very rare condition.

    The students who worked to raise the nearly $4,000 needed to send Emory and her family to Disney World are part of Alex Bolinger’s Organizational Behavior course. The effort to raise money to fulfill a child’s wish through the Idaho Make-A-Wish Foundation, is a regular part of that class.

    Bolinger said the students are divided into groups with the goal of creating and executing a plan to raise money to fill a specific child’s wish through the program. It’s the third time one of Bolinger’s classes has completed this task.

    “These guys went above and beyond,” he said of the current class. “They are required to do just one fundraiser; most of them either helped with, or completely did on their own, two or more fundraisers.”

    The point of requiring the business students to complete this task, he said, is to give them motivation beyond personal gain or self-interest.

    “It turns out a stronger form, a more sustainable form of motivation is being able to do something for others and being able to see the connection between what you do and the people who benefit,” Bolinger said.

    Making ISU’s Make-A-Wish Challenge a bit different is that it is part of an undergraduate course. Bolinger said he first learned of the program from a University of Pennsylvania professor while he was working for Penn State University at a facility in the Philadelphia area.

    Bolinger said many top business colleges, such as the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, or Harvard University have the Make-A-Wish Challenge as part of their curriculum, but at the graduate level.

    “So we are very unique in that we started it here at ISU with undergraduate students,” he said.

    Jessie Butler, a management major in his senior year, was one of the team leaders in Bolinger’s class. He said the challenge helped him develop some networking skills, but also gave him a different perspective on local businesses.

    “We started going out to some businesses, and we got all these donations and ended up with a really impressive amount of stuff for our auction,” he said.

    He also learned the importance of a local business being involved in the community, something he anticipates doing as he moves into the business world.

    “Absolutely. I think business has to be part of the community it is in, or what is the point of being there?” he said.

    Julie Thomas, regional manager for the Make-A-Wish Foundation in Idaho, applauded the involvement of Bolinger’s class.

    “It’s wonderful,” she said. “ISU has been super supportive and (Bolinger) has done a great job.”

    Thomas, while talking to the 40 or so people gathered at ISU Thursday morning for a ceremony announcing the gift, said Idaho Make-A-Wish grants about 90 wishes each year. And about half of those wishes come out of Southeast Idaho.

    “The average cost of a wish is about $6,500, and we are always looking for involvement, adopting a wish, sponsoring a wish, anything like that,” she said. “We are continually fundraising to sponsor wishes.”

    More information about Idaho Make-A-Wish can be found at its website at idaho.wish.org.