Valicity Lee Faith was a bright, smiling little girl with an infectious laugh up until her very last day. 

She will be remembered Saturday, March 1, as Kalispell enjoys the Fourth Annual Princess Ball, which promises to be the largest yet.

Diagnosed with cancer at age 2, Valicity beat it back into remission once before losing her battle with the disease when she was 5.

In Valicity’s honor, her father created the Princess Ball, a charity event raising money for the organizations that helped the Faith family while Valicity was in round after round of chemotherapy. 

“In 2008 my daughter was diagnosed with leukemia a week before her third birthday,” said Josh Faith, Valicity’s father. “It is one of those things where life is stopped. We uprooted to Seattle for a year and a half of treatments.”

The doctors said she had pushed back the cancer enough to go home. In celebration, Josh threw a party for his daughter.

“I called it the princess ball because she was my princess,” he said. “It was a big thank-you to everyone who had helped us. As soon as it was over, she asked if we could have another one.”

It wasn’t meant to be. 

The cancer came back in 2010. The Faiths left their then-12-year-old son Dominick in Kalispell with relatives while they once again went to Seattle.

On July 6, 2010, the disease took Valicity’s life.

“Parents, doctors, nurses and other patients would all seek her out,” Faith recalls of his daughter’s stay in the hospital. “She had this infectious laughter that had the whole ward in hysterics.”

“It’s not fair for a parent to have to bury their child.”

The Faiths’ world was shattered. The bubbly little girl with a love for princesses was taken from them. 

Josh responded by bringing back Valicity’s Princess Ball. 

“After we left Seattle, our son kept us going with his sports and school and whatnot,” he said. “You try to have equal attention for your kids, but we had to focus mainly on Valicity. [Dominick] understood that. We brought back the Princess Ball and it got us out of a rut. It helped us grieve.”

Another of Faith’s family members, Mikey Wilke, died of muscular dystrophy in March 2013 at age 16, making childhood disease a very personal issue for the family. The organizations helping the families of these unfortunate youngsters receive constant support from families like the Faiths.

The first official Princess Ball was held at Alpine Lighting and 350 people came out to raise money for Angel Flight, the volunteer pilot service bringing medical patients around the country. The next year, 650 people came for the Montana Hope Project and then 1,200 for Ronald McDonald House.

By Saturday, Faith expects the more than 1,500 tickets to sell out completely and that the Red Lion Hotel Kalispell will be crowded with its largest event ever.

“We’ve sold almost 1,000 tickets already,” he said. “And this valley has a habit of procrastinating. We’ll sell them all.”

The money raised from ticket sales, silent auctions and raffles goes again to the Montana Hope Project. The project, run by the Montana Highway Patrol, grants wishes to sick children. Valicity had been given a weeklong trip to Walt Disney World to “meet the princesses of Disney.”

Two local girls will be granted their wishes at the March 1 event, and Faith said it is likely the ball will raise more than $60,000 for the Montana Hope Project.  

Advance tickets for Saturday’s Princess Ball are $25 for adults or $10 for children. 

They are being sold at any Glacier Bank or Three Rivers Bank location or at the Red Lion Hotel. 

The event starts at 7 p.m. A website, www.valicitysonceuponatime.org, also offers ticket sales and more information. 

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.