12-year-old with rare disorder gets trip to NCAA Women's Sweet 16

Albany has a special guest at the NCAA Women's Sweet 16.

12-year-old Ellie Stewart was gifted with tickets and a trip to Albany from Team IMPACT to join the University of Iowa's dance team as they cheer on the Hawkeyes in MVP Arena.

Team IMPACT, a nonprofit organization that matches children facing serious illness and disability with college sports teams, helped Ellie match with the Iowa Dance team in August of 2023.

Helping her make life-long memories with new friends.

"It means so much because it's not something a lot of kids with disabilities typically get is to have those really close-knit friendships," said Ellie's mom Rebekah Stewart. "So this trip especially has been like we wouldn't have been able to do this without Team IMPACT."

Ellie was a baby when doctors diagnosed her with Williams Syndrome.

"She was diagnosed when she was 10 months old," said Rebekah. "It's in about 1 and 10 thousand so it's fairly rare."

Williams Syndrome is a rare genetic disorder that is caused by a genetic deletion.

It can come with some heart problems, learning delays, and sensory issues, but it also gave Ellie a cocktail personality.

"She can just walk up to anybody and chat with them. When she was first diagnosed I kind of thought our world is coming to an end," said Rebekah. "There's a lot of ableism in society so I had kind of internalized it I guess but it's really forced us to open our eyes to different experiences."

Team IMPACT has matched more than 3,000 children with more than 750 colleges and universities across the country.