DREAM TEAM HELPS WISHES COME TRUE.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

It starts this way. With a father and daughter stepping forward and saying, ``Take us, we'll do it.''

A few months later, a 6-year-old boy with a brain tumor is stepping off a plane with his family in Orlando, Fla., for a week at Disney World where he will do something he hasn't done in a very long time, says his mother, Daphne Chan.

Her son, Sidney, will laugh and smile again.

All because Jon Scott of Sherman Oaks, and his daughter, Tiffany Sidoti of West Hills, said to the people who run the Dream Factory, ``Take us, we'll do it.''

Before they volunteered to start a local chapter in May, there wasn't one in Los Angeles for the Louisville, Ky.-based charity that's been granting wishes for thousands of chronically ill children over the past 20 years.

Unlike other, better known nonprofit organizations that grant wishes, these children do not have to be terminally ill to be considered. There must be written confirmation from doctors and health records that verify a long-term, chronic illness.

``Jon and Tiffany are pretty incredible,'' says Stan Adler, director of operations for Dream Factory, which has 32 chapters throughout the United States.

``It usually takes many months before a new chapter gets organized and ready to fulfill a wish. Jon and Tiffany were off and running in a month.''

They raised $3,500 in the community to make a sick, little boy laugh and smile again for a week before he started eight months of painful chemotherapy treatments.

``We are home now, and Sidney is starting his chemotherapy,'' Daphne Chan wrote them recently. ``He is stable now, so I try to write you this thank-you note before something happens again.

``We had a great time in Florida. Sidney laughed and smiled during the whole trip. Every day was full of surprises and excitement. We promised him that one day we will come back when he is fully recovered.

``We want to thank you. Without your generosity and hard work, this could never have happened.''

Tiffany takes the letter and puts it away with the others her father has received over the years from families such as the Chans.

``I've been my dad's little girl for a long time now, proud of him for doing wonderful things like this for so many years,'' says the 35-year-old mother of two young children.

She was 12 back in February 1980 when a freak rainstorm hit the Valley and flooded 20 homes in their Woodland Hills neighborhood. A storm drain clogged and backed up, causing a torrent of water to turn their street into rapids.

``I remember sitting up on the roof of our house with my mom, watching mattresses and furniture wash down the street,'' Tiffany said. ``There was 12 feet of water in our house.''

They lost everything they owned, Jon says, but it wasn't anything that couldn't be replaced. What made the greatest impression on him was all his friends from the music business who came by to help his family clean up and start over again.

He threw them a thank-you party, renting out the Woodlake Bowl one night from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. They raised a few thousand dollars that night, donating it all to the TJ Martell Foundation, a charity started by record executive Tony Martell for his son who died of leukemia.

``We dubbed it the 'rock and bowl,' and it caught on in the Valley,'' Jon said. ``All the money we raised went to the foundation.''

And so did Jon. He wound up taking a job as national consultant for the foundation that has raised millions of dollars for cancer, leukemia and AIDS research.

So he knew exactly what he had to do when he received an e-mail earlier this year saying a young family relative who had Down syndrome just had his wish granted by an organization called Dream Factory.

``I hadn't heard of them so I did some research and found out they were doing some great work, but didn't have a chapter in Los Angeles. Tiffany and I met with them, and started one.''

Two days later, they got their first wish from a young boy named Sidney with a brain tumor. They held a fund-raiser on Father's Day this year, raising $1,500 from a putting contest at a local restaurant.

Then, Jon and Tiffany went knocking on other business doors, such as Vista Ford in Woodland Hills, and raised more than $5,000 for Dream Factory at a fund-raiser the dealership sponsored.

When they had enough, they knocked on Daphne Chan's door, and told her family to pack their bags. They were going on a much-needed vacation before Sidney started his eight months of chemotherapy.

And now Jon and Tiffany are looking for the next child and the one after that to make the wish of a chronically ill child come true.

If you want to help them, give Jon a call at [phone]. For more information on Dream Factory, log on to dreamfactory.com.

Dennis McCarthy, [phone]

dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Tiffany Sidoti of West Hills and her father, Jon Scott, of Sherman Oaks started a local chapter of Dream Factory, a group that helps fulfill wishes.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer