Make-A-Wish Foundation sends North Carolina boy to Wisconsin to be a cheesemaker

By Bryant McCray

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    WISCONSIN (WDJT) — If you could make a wish, what would it be?

A North Carolina boy who beat cancer could have wished for anything, but he wanted to come here, to Wisconsin, to do a little research for his dream job.

Eleven-year-old Maxx Ball from North Carolina is a little boy with a big spirit, and while Maxx sings the theme song to his favorite TV show today, it wasn’t too long ago he was fighting for his life.

“On Dec. 21, 2021, is when the official Ewing sarcoma come back,” said Glenn Ball, Maxx’s dad.

Dec. 21 — four days before Christmas — the Ball family forever changed.

“Any day that you realize that your child has cancer, I don’t know how to explain,” said Ball. “I just kept thinking we are going to be done soon, just over and over in my head.”

There are no words to describe what the Ball family has gone through, but they say they learned to trust the process.

“One day at a time. Again, if you think forward about it, it consumes you. If you think backwards on it, it consumes you. One day at a time, be there in the moment.”

And it’s the living in the moment they’re doing now. Less than a year later, their son is in remission and living out his biggest wish, which brought them from North Carolina to the small town of St. Cloud, Wisconsin.

With the help of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Maxx could have chosen anything, anywhere in the world. But he wanted to come here, to the Sargento Baker Cheese facility, to learn what it takes to be a cheesemaker.

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