JOPLIN, MO.--- Wall to wall chocolate themed displays fill the Holiday Inn Convention Center.
"We are having our Chocolate Extravaganza which is our annual fundraiser for our Dream Team which makes patients last wishes come true," states Teresa Severs, Volunteer Coordinator, Dream Team.
Mary Shepard knows exactly how proceeds from all of these sweet treets can help change lives. She's experienced it first hand when the Dream Team granted her husband's dying wish.
"He wanted to go to a movie one more time, so they gave him tickets to go down to the show to see Tom Cruise, we hadn't been in a long time," states Shepard.
An experience she will never forget.
"I just like the way it all was put together and they kept talking about volunteering, they were so good with him you know, how could you say know," states Shepard.
Shepard has since joined the volunteer organization and is now paying it forward to others.
"That's why we do this, it's because of those dreams of those patients and that's what we have to stay focused on. It's not really about the dollar amount, although that helps, it's about making those last wishes come true," states Shepard.
And sometimes volunteers say they benefit from just as much as the patients they serve.
"To see that satisfaction in their faces and know that they have achieved something that they have always wanted to do, and you just get to walk away with a little bit of satisfaction with that," states Severs.
This is the second annual Chocolate Extravaganza, organizers say their goal is to raise more than 6,000 dollars at today's event.
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