Caitlin Crommett, founder of Dream Catchers
Dream Catchers is a non-profit organization founded by Caitlin Crommett, a former high school student at Tesoro High School, to make the last wishes and dreams come true for patients at Hospice Care of the West. Caitlin had been volunteering for Hospice Care of the West since she was in seventh grade because her father worked for the company. But it wasn’t until the summer of her sophomore year that the flash of genius for Dream Catchers struck Caitlin while watching the movie “Patch Adams”. In the movie, she was impressed by how kind the doctor was in caring for his patients not just the disease. In talking to one of his patients, an elderly lady who no longer wanted to eat, he discovered she always wanted to plunge into a pool of pasta. He made that dream a reality for her.
Today, Caitlin wants to make dreams a reality for patients battling terminal illnesses and basically living out their last days. Dreams come in many forms, maybe they are lifelong dreams that never happened or maybe the dream is a last wish. It could be the first entry on your bucket list, the list of things you want to do before you die. Or maybe, it’s just a wish to spend one last dinner surrounded by all your family and extended family. The dream could be one last afternoon sail on the Pacific or one last trip down Main Street at Disneyland with your family. Maybe you are yearning to see your daughter or brother who live clear across the country. First you have to dream the dream, make the wish and then pass it on to Caitlin. She has a dream card that you can fill out at Hospice Care of the West. Then once it’s in ink, she and her team of Dream Catchers at Tesoro High School and Hospice Care of the West will work their magic to make your dream or last wish happen.
For those of you not familiar with a dream catcher, it’s a Native American instrument hung over the bed that looks like a spun web or net with a handle that catches dreams, the good ones pass through and float down onto the dreamer. The bad ones get tangled in the web and never reach the dreamer. Each time the Caitlin fulfills a dream she hangs a dream catcher over the hospice patient’s bed as a reminder that last wishes and dreams can come true.