A "Sweet" Summer: BDI Cloud Nine raises $15,000 for Drea's Dream Come True

For 5 year old Drea, nothing beats cotton candy and ice cream. It’s a special treat that has come to represent a small dose of fun during an otherwise difficult time.

Video courtesy of our friends at CoPilot

This past January, the Pepe family was turned upside down when they learned that Drea, their youngest daughter, had an aggressive form of brain cancer.

“It’s been a really rough couple of months, and there is a lot of uncertainty ahead,” says Drea’s mom, Mandy, “We know that Drea is in for a long, hard battle, so we’re trying to focus on keeping things as light and fun as we can. Talking with her about The Dream Factory and the excitement around her dream come true has been a big part of that.”

The Dream Factory and the Bridge Drive In (BDI) both love to bring joy to families in Winnipeg and across Manitoba. Over the summer, we worked together to make Drea’s dream come true in the sweetest way possible!

That Dream is for Drea to receive the royal treatment and become a princess at Disney’s Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.

When a dream comes true for a child battling a life-threatening illness, that child and their family get to leave behind some of the stresses of tests, treatments and appointments. For their whole Dream Experience - they are walking on cloud nine.

To capture that feeling, our friends at the BDI launched a brand new specialty cone this season - the “Cloud Nine” - with all proceeds supporting Drea’s dream come true. The Cloud Nine is the BDI’s interpretation of a dream ice cream cone. Vanilla ice cream dipped in cotton candy syrup, wrapped in a cloud of cotton candy and topped with sprinkles, of course.

Pictured: The BDI Cloud Nine was a sweet treat for Winnipeggers wanting to make a dream come true this summer! — **Pictured:** The **BDI Cloud Nine** was a sweet treat for Winnipeggers wanting to make a dream come true this summer!

Community response to the Cloud Nine has been nothing short of incredible. Over the summer $15,000 was raised to bring Drea’s dream to life - well exceeding the original goal of $10,000.00.

“Meeting Drea and her family, and then having our community come together to do something special for her has been a highlight for our team,” says Justin Jacob, owner of the BDI, “She’s been through so much, and is such a sweet kid. She deserves to have her dream come true, and we’ve been able to make that happen here.”

Drea’s mom Mandy says that her family has felt overwhelmed by the level of support:

“Watching our friends and family, and just people in our community get excited about helping make Drea’s dream come true has been so exciting. We have people sending us photos of them with the cone, and it’s been a bright spot for Drea during this really tough time in all of our lives.”

Thank you to our friends at bdi!

We had the BEST summer working with Justin, Riley, and the entire Bridge Drive In team. They have continually gone above and beyond to make Drea's dream come true - raising $15,000 this summer through the sale of the one-of-a-kind Cloud Nine cone! They have also been true friends to The Dream Factory, helping spread the word about our Winnipeg Free Press takeover, and even creating a pie for the Exchange District Pharmacy Pie Party!

We have so much love for our friends at BDI - thank you for helping bring dreams to life for kids in our community, and for making it fun along the way!

Meet Drea - Letter from a parent

Pictured: Drea is all smiles with her Cloud Nine cone! — **Pictured: Drea** is all smiles with her **Cloud Nine** cone!

On January 17, 2019, our lives changed in a matter of minutes. Our baby girl, Drea had been not feeling well for months: constant nausea, headaches and dizziness. We had taken her to the doctor several times and after two emergency room visits, a CT scan confirmed our worst nightmare: Drea had a tumour inside the 4th ventricle of her brain.

We were told that surgery was inevitable and on January 28, 2019, after hours of tears and uncertainty, we learned the surgery was a success. Surgeons were able to remove 100% of Drea’s tumour. We were over the moon and so happy - Drea was finally on the road to recovery.

Unfortunately, just days later on February 1st, 2019, our world came crashing down once again. The doctors diagnosed Drea with an aggressive form of brain cancer: Medulloblastoma Group 3.

There are no words to describe the feelings and emotions that go through your body as those words come out of the doctor’s mouth. In the coming days we quickly realized that Drea was headed into the fight of her life.

Drea is one of a kind. She’s a huge prankster and always loves making people laugh. She loves so many of the things that 5-year-old girls love: dancing, singing karaoke, giving makeovers, and manicures and pedicures.

She’s also quite a sports fan, she cheers loud for the Manitoba Moose and was so disappointed when her first season of hockey had to be cut short due to her diagnosis. She’s also always pretending she’s a WWE Diva and trying to wrestle with her siblings.

Like most kids, Drea also has quite the sweet tooth! Her favourites are cotton candy (the pink kind, of course) and going for dessert after dinner. These treats have become fun distractions on tough treatment days.

It’s been a really rough couple of months for our family, and there is a lot of uncertainty ahead. We know that Drea is in for a long, hard battle. We’re trying to focus on keeping things as light and fun as we can, and chatting with her about The Dream Factory and her dream come true has been a big part of that.

Drea is our little princess, and we are excited for her to feel like the princess that she truly is when we visit Disney for her dream princess makeover. For us, it really is the light at the end of a long, long tunnel - and we can’t wait for it to be here.