Next month, 6-year-old Masan Payne will take his first trip to Disney World. He’ll get a limo ride to the airport, be able to head to the front of the lines and ride all the rides.

For Masan, who suffers from Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a disease that causes nerve degeneration and muscle weakness in the extremities, it will be the trip of a lifetime, a rare chance to just be a kid. For his mom, April, it’s an opportunity for her family, which also includes husband Walter and sons Tavan and Prestan, to get away from the pressures of living with Masan’s disease.

“It’s one week with no doctor’s visits, no stress,” she says. “It’s just amazing.”

The all-expense paid trip comes with the help of the Dream Factory and the hard work of volunteers Terry and JoAnn Parker. For more than four years, the couple has been donating their time, and sometimes money, to making dreams come true for critically and chronically ill children.

“You just don’t realize how many kids are sick,” Mrs. Parker says.

The Parkers, who have volunteered with Big Brothers/Big Sisters and the Noyes Home, have always had a soft spot for children with illnesses, Mr. Parker says.

“I just felt fortunate that my kids were all healthy,” he says.

Since they started volunteering with the Dream Factory, the couple — who hadn’t heard of the Dream Factory before they began volunteering — has helped makes the dreams of five children come true.

Children are referred to the Dream Factory by doctors, nurses, teachers, family and friends. Once a child is approved for the program, he or she is assigned to a volunteer, or two in the case of the Parkers. The Parkers spend their time arranging for the families to have airline tickets, limo rides to and from the airport, rental cars, spending money — all at no cost to the family and coming mostly from donations from local companies and individuals.

“We’re not shy about asking for free stuff,” Mrs. Parker says.

Mr. Parker hands out his Dream Factory volunteer business cards, with his home phone number on them, everywhere he goes. He’s always hoping to make contacts with businesses, organizations or individuals who would be willing to help the Dream Factory.

It takes about two or three months for the Parkers to get the arrangements together and make the child’s dream come true. Once the child has received his or her dream, the Parkers’ work is done, until the next child comes along. However, the bonds they’ve forged with their children last past the planning and the trips.

Throughout the planning process, the Parkers become extremely close to their children, “closer then we should, I think,” Mrs. Parker says.

“It’s hard not to,” Mr. Parker adds.

They’ve attended the graduations and birthday parties of their Dream Factory kids, and a few of the children were surprise guests at the Parkers’ 40th wedding anniversary. The children call and keep the Parkers updated on what’s going on in their lives.

“We not only send a child on a dream and that’s it,” Mr. Parker says. “We’re with them forever.”

Also with them forever is the sincere gratitude the families show the Parkers for what they’ve done.

“We get so many thanks,” says Mrs. Parker. “They just want to do something for you too.”

But for the Parkers, “the joy of seeing their faces,” says Mrs. Parker, is thanks enough. It is enough to be able to help the children, like Masan, and their families to forget about their illnesses, if even just for a little while.

“We’ve never had a vacation ever, we’ve never really went anywhere,” says April Payne, “so this will be amazing.”

Lifestyles reporter Lacey Storer can be reached at lstorer@npgco.com