Kaylee Santiago - Winter 2009

Eight-year-old Kaylee Santiago is a third grader from Pennsylvania who loves being with her family, going to school, making friends and enjoying life. She’s also very caring of others and willing to help whenever she can. Maybe that’s why she wants to be a nurse when she grows up.

At school, Kaylee has lots of friends and likes going to her reading and swimming classes. She’s really into the Junie B. Jones series of books and reads them at home and at school.

Purple is her favorite color, so naturally her room has lots of purple, and she wears a lot of purple clothes. She even has a purple backpack she takes to school.

Kaylee has a sister, Maddie, who is six years old. (Read more about Maddie on page 4.) They often play together and share some of the same hobbies, including reading, dancing and swimming.

During the week, Kaylee attends CCD classes. Twice a week, she attends tap and ballet classes, which she began last year. She’s really looking forward to her first recital this spring.

In May (her birthday month), Kaylee will play baseball for the Miracle League. She’s so excited about it! In fact, she had a chance to meet some Pittsburgh Pirates team members, who helped raise money to build the field. She has even appeared on Fox Sports Network and local news websites to support the league.

Like a lot of young girls, Kaylee loves the Disney princesses and enjoys watching each of their movies. As for her favorites, she rates the princesses in this order: 1) Cinderella 2) Sleeping Beauty and 3) Snow White. She likes the Disney movie, “Camp Rock” (Mitzi’s her favorite performer), and she watches Disney shows, “Zack and Cody” as well as “Hannah Montana.” Plus she tunes in to a variety of shows on Animal Planet.

Kaylee is quite a techsavvy kid. She has a laptop and likes to go to the Webkinz and Pogo Internet sites to play games. She frequents the Noggin, High School Musical and Disney sites as well. Kaylee also has a Nintendo DS text messenger. Her neighborhood friend, Mallory, has one too, and they have fun playing games and chatting with each other.

Kaylee has Apert syndrome and has had four surgeries so far, with none planned in the near future. Doctors are checking her development and will make decisions on what kind of surgeries or procedures she needs when she gets older.

She went to last year’s CCA retreat in Myrtle Beach, SC, and had a blast! She made new friends and has kept up with them through letters. Kaylee may go to this year’s retreat in Grapevine, TX. Hopefully she’ll catch up with her friends there and will, no doubt, make new ones, too.

If you would like to share your story with CCA, please send an email to Annie Reeves at areeves@ccakids.com. If your story is chosen, with your permission, we will edit and publish it in the CCA newsletter, on the Web site or use it for public awareness programs. Not all stories will be selected.

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