16 year old, Lexi Mentzel, traveled from Mitchell, South Dakota to New York City with her family to see the ball drop live in Time Square this past New Year’s Eve.
For the Mentzel family, the celebration was not just the holidays, Lexi had ended chemotherapy seven months prior to the trip. She had been fighting Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph nodes, and winning.
She watched the ball drop from the balcony on the 22nd floor of a building in Times Square. “I was the idea of everything” that created such a meaningful trip, including a special dinner with her family on New Years’ Eve. At midnight, she described a feeling of “pure joy and gratitude” and appreciating that “God brought me to that moment.”
Mentzel and her family saw Wicked on Broadway and enjoyed seeing New York City during the festive time of this year. Seeing the ball drop in Times Square had been on her “bucket list”. Lexi was able to cross if off after the Sanford Children’s Hospital in Sioux Falls put her name in for Make-A-Wish.
Mentzel said she wants to donate to Make-A-Wish when she is older. All wishes are funded completely from donation.
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