A rising star’s wish comes true

By Marconi Calindas
Reporter

The Make-A-Wish Foundation posted another milestone last Friday when it made another child’s dream come true by providing a full CD recording for Amber Lynn Rosario Mendiola who was born with a congenital heart defect.

Amber was surprised Friday morning to see hundreds of her school mates at the Marianas High School lined up at their school hallways as Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Stel Star Productions brought her CDs to her room. Amber said she could not remember being more happy than when she saw the CDs.

She also premiered her very own music video in the afternoon at the Hyatt Regency Saipan. The event was attended by the media, who were given a sneak preview of her video “Set Me Free,” an upbeat cut from her self-titled album.

The album contains 10 songs; nine are original cuts, while one is a cover—a medley of “Yellow bird” and “Isse Lei”, which required mechanical licensing.

“I’m really nervous and excited and I kept getting goose bumps in my stomach,” she said when asked how she feels that she now has her own CD recording. She said she loves all the songs in the album and has no particular favorite.

Amber recalled that the biggest challenge she had when she was making the video was to try not to laugh at all times during takes because she just couldn’t control the happiness she felt.

Amber was selected among the several referrals by physicians to the foundation. Vicky Benavente, director of the foundation, said that Make-A-Wish generally grants wishes to deserving children. “But they really have to have serious illnesses,” said Chailang Palacios, a pioneer of the foundation on Saipan.

Amber had heart surgeries since birth until last summer, according to the foundation. She is currently a freshman high school student at MHS, a teenager who tries to live daily as a regular teen in spite of her medical condition.

In March she will be visiting Rota for a concert and in April she will be in Oregon. Amber will be staging a concert on Saipan in May, so she said her busy schedule ahead is going to be full of fun and excitement.

Despite all the hard work and planning that went into making the album, Amber said she is very thankful to the foundation for granting her wish. The project took six months to complete, said Benavente, but that everything was worth it. Amber thanked the Hyatt Regency Hotel for its donation that helped fulfill her wish.

Hyatt general manager Michael Von Siebenthal said his team is very proud of Amber’s achievement. He said that Hyatt’s annual golf tournament fundraising proceeds have been forwarded to the foundation for the last three years now.