UT Dream Team Project Aims to Give a 10-Year-Old with a Life-Altering Condition an Experience of a Lifetime

By TJ Krilowicz

Reporting Texas

Ten-year-old Sloane Rainey faces challenges from cerebral palsy that make everyday activities harder. Still, she refuses to let it hold her back. Her spirit and positivity shine through in everything she does.

The UT Dream Team is a club at the University of Texas at Austin that helps children with life-altering conditions achieve their dreams of participating in Longhorn sports. When they heard about Sloane, they knew she was a diamond in the rough.

“Brad (Siegel) and I were both like, she’s the one,” said Maddy Frain, co-founder of the Dream Team. “We love her. She joined that Zoom call decked out in Burnt Orange and Longhorn gear. Every hobby she talked about, I was like, wait, me too.”

The UT Austin Dream Team was founded last year by juniors Maddy Frain and Brad Siegel. They founded the club through the national non-profit organization Dream on 3. Their mission is to pick a kid at the start of each academic year and have monthly hangouts. Throughout the year, the team will host “dream weekends” that aim to help make the kids’ Longhorn dreams come true.

“We always say the greatest joy is being a Texas Longhorn, and to give someone an experience of that is so great,” Frain said.

Last year’s Dream Kid of the Year, Peter, got a VIP experience at a Texas men’s basketball game and got a tour of Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

“It started out thinking we are doing something good for Peter,” Frain said. “The exchange we got in return was a dream come true for all of us. The whole year with Peter was such a great experience.”

Now, the Dream Team is excited to help Sloane. In September, she headed to Cabo Bob’s for what she assumed would be a second interview with the team.

“We had to keep it a secret that she was the chosen kid this year, which was really hard to keep a secret.” Rebecca Rainey, Sloane’s mother, said. “They said, ‘Hey, let’s have a reveal.’ They had us come to Cabo Bob’s, which is a restaurant that she loves. And she thought she was coming for a second interview, so she was nervous.”

The Dream Team was welcomed by Sloane with her custom-made Longhorn jewelry. Each member of the team received their own pair.

“She takes donations for her jewelry, mainly earrings and pins that you can put on a bag,”  Rainey said.

But it isn’t just earrings that make her likable.

“Sloane, she’s so involved, so much fun, so upbeat, we love being around her,” Siegel said.

And Sloane herself says that she loves being around the Dream Team.

“I like that they are really social,” Sloane said. “When I tell them something, there is always at least one person that I can relate to or had a similar experience.”

So what dreams does the Dream Team hope to accomplish with Sloane? Her wish list includes riding in a limo to a Texas football game, meeting some of the tallest players, and meeting her favorite player, Arch Manning.

“Even though he has like a bijillion cameras in his face, he still plays well,” Sloane said of Manning.

And while it hasn’t been announced to Sloane just yet, Frain told Reporting Texas that they are going to check some of her dream list off by taking her to the next Longhorn home football game, a matchup against Vanderbilt, on Nov. 1.

“We don’t have everything set in stone, but all we know is that we are going to give her a VIP experience,” Frain said.

If you want to check in with how the Dream Team is helping Sloane’s Longhorn dream come true, you can follow them on Instagram here.