Minium: ODU Fans Can Help Chartway Promise Send Isaiah Pettaway On Trip Of A Lifetime
Buy a ticket for home game against Marshall on Feb. 20 and ODU will donate $1 for Isaiah, who has Sickle Cell Disease.
By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – Isaiah Pettaway is an 11-year-old Norfolk resident who was born with Sickle Cell Disease, and as such, is a brave young guy.
Sickle Cell is an inherited disease with no known cure that alters a person’s red blood cells. Basically, it interferes with production of a protein in your blood that carries oxygen to all parts of the body.
It causes swelling, pain in your joints and anemia, just for starters. Long term, it can cause significant damage to your organs.
Treatment includes frequent blood transfusions and pain meds.
In other words, Isaiah was dealt a tough hand in life, and while I haven’t met him, I’ve seen photos of him, and his smile is endearing.
If you’d like to give Isaiah a helping hand, you can do so by purchasing tickets for the Old Dominion University men’s basketball game on Thursday, Feb. 20, against Marshall.
ODU will donate $1 of each ticket sold to help fund Isaiah’s dream vacation.
To purchase a ticket, CLICK HERE
The Make-A-Wish Foundation and Chartway Credit Union’s Chartway Promise Foundation asked Isaiah to make three wishes. He responded with DisneyWorld, Six Flags or perhaps a major water park, wherever he could ride a roller coaster or go on rides that are "scary."
ODU’s goal is to help pay for Isaiah’s trip. But if $1 doesn’t seem like enough and you want to donate more, CLICK HERE.
It’s easy. I donated. It only takes a minute.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Chartway Credit Union, it is the organization that purchased naming rights to Chartway Arena. Chartway spent millions of dollars on the sponsorship, which also includes scholarships for student-athletes and financial education.
And, by the way, Chartway is the official credit union of ODU athletics.
Of all of the corporate sponsors who work with ODU, I can’t think of any who does more in the Hampton Roads community than Chartway.
Credit unions aren’t banks that may have branches all over Hampton Roads, but are often are headquartered in another state. Chartway is headquartered in Virginia Beach, and while it has branches in Texas and Utah, the vast majority of its employees branches and employees are in Hampton Roads.
TowneBank, another ODU sponsor, is a notable exception – it is headquartered in Suffolk, and does a ton of work in the community.
Credit unions are owned by its members, meaning I’m a part owner because I have an account there. All profits are plowed back into the company, often to reduce fees for customers.
As such, credit unions tend to be interested and generous when it comes to helping their communities.
Chartway demonstrated its commitment to this region 20 years ago when it founded the Chartway Promise Foundation and it has since awarded $16 million to help more than 10,000 young people and their families who are dealing with medical hardships.
Isaiah will attend the Marshall game and fans will learn more about his story when he is introduced late in the first half.
Isaiah will be the sixth “Promise Hero” to receive a Make-A-Wish award at an ODU football for basketball game.
It is the third year that Chartway and ODU have partnered to not only give children a wonderful vacation, but also a chance to receive encouragement from thousands of fans.
If you're there, give Isaiah a nice ovation.
“We appreciate our partnership with ODU so much,” said Christine Wilson, president of the Chartway Promise Foundation. “Our Promise Heroes are treated like royalty by the ODU staff, and we really appreciate that. It means so much to the kids.
“Working with ODU also gives us a platform to reach more people and tell the stories of those children and all of the good work done by our foundation and how they can get involved.”
Brian Schools, Chartway Credit Union’s president and CEO, calls what the foundation does “part of our community commitment to live up to our purpose by supporting medically fragile children and their families, bringing them hope, joy and smiles.”
And that’s pretty awesome.
“I wish more businesses in Hampton Roads operated like Chartway,” Bryan Stephens, president and CEO of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, said last month at the opening of a Chartway branch at the Oceanfront.
“Their culture is worthy of emulation by every business in every industry.”
Minium is ODU’s senior executive writer. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram