It would be surprising if the thunderous roar coming from Lake City High School’s gymnasium Friday couldn’t be heard a mile away. The cheering and stomping was deafening.

However, students weren’t cheering for themselves. They were cheering for their classmate, Mikayla Nicodemus.

Throughout Homecoming Week, Lake City High School students raised money for Make-A-Wish Idaho — an organization that provides positive experiences for terminally ill children.

The students presented Make-A-Wish Idaho with a check at Friday’s assembly. But what they weren’t expecting, was for the organization to give something back to them. To the surprise of most students and staff, Make-A-Wish Idaho granted Nicodemus, 18, her wish of going to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla.

The room erupted in cheers as the senior walked out to the center of the gym floor wearing her school spirit tutu. Someone started a chant, and the entire school was soon cheering “We love ‘Kayla, We love ‘Kayla.”

Nicodemus was joined on center stage by her mom, stepdad, two brothers and her grandparents. Nicodemus’ mom, Jodi Rhoden, spoke to the school on behalf of her daughter.

“I hope you know how much it means for these kids,” she said. “You’ve touched so many lives today.”

Nicodemus was diagnosed at three weeks old with Phelan-McDermid Syndrome, a rare chromosome deletion. She is one of two people in Idaho with the disease and one of 14 in the world.

At 8, she was diagnosed with thyroid disease and lymphedema-lymphatic fluid build-up in tissue currently affecting her legs and feet. She started having seizures at 13, and last year her family found out she had kidney failure.

Make-A-Wish approached Nicodemus and her family last October about providing her with a wish. She can’t speak for herself, so her family chose to take her to Disney World because she loves Mickey Mouse.

Rhoden knew her daughter wouldn’t be able to understand the concept of getting a wish until she entered Disney World, so she approached the school and asked if they could make it special.

That idea snowballed at Lake City High School.

Homecoming Week was dedicated to raising money for Make-A-Wish and the homecoming dance was themed “Wish Upon a Star.”

Alex Ayers, the school’s ASB president, helped plan everything along with three other student association officers.

“It’s been so exciting to see the whole school come together,” he said. “Just knowing how excited the school is about granting a wish, even for someone they don’t know, it makes me proud to be president of this school.”

School principal Deanne Clifford felt the same way,

“I’m touched at how important this was to [the students],” she said. “It’s been one of those special weeks. In 20 years of homecoming, I haven’t seen the inspired passion these Associated Student Body officers have dedicated to it.”

Throughout the Make-A-Wish presentation at the homecoming rally, Nicodemus’ smile grew — from when she saw her parents and grandparents and gave them all big hugs, to when she and her older brother did their secret handshake, to confetti being thrown in her name, to the cheering that filled the gymnasium.

“She knows something big happened today,” Rhoden told The Press after the assembly. “But to our family, these memories are priceless.”