DATE: Friday, August 1, 1997                TAG: 9708010749

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ERIKA REIF, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHINCOTEAGUE                      LENGTH:   67 lines

AN ILL BOY WHO CAME TO SEE WILD PONIES IS THE RECIPIENT OF ONE

``Who's Noah?'' asked the family from Florida when they pulled into the Chincoteague motel Monday.

The Sanz family had driven in on horse business, like many in the crowds watching the annual pony swim on Wednesday and auction Thursday. But they were curious about a sign over the Birchwood Motel door: ``Welcome to Chincoteague, Noah.''

From the clerk, the Sanz family heard a story about another Florida parent in the same motel, in town to grant her gravely ill son an ultimate wish. Karen Kauffman had brought 17-year-old Noah to see wild ponies swim across Assateague Channel.

They heard more: As a boy, Noah had read about the legendary swim. His longtime dream was to see it firsthand. When he finally witnessed the event this week, it was between dialysis treatments he was undergoing every other day for kidney disease.

The Sanz family wanted to do something for Noah. By Tuesday morning, they decided that he would have a Chincoteague pony of his own.

David Sanz found out Noah wanted a black pony. At the auction, Sanz bid $1,000 for the only black foal in the herd. It was the last pony born on the island before the auction - only four days old.

Many in Chincoteague already knew about Noah and how nurses and doctors at his Florida hospital paid airfare and car rental for him and his mother. In Chincoteague, restaurants donated meal certificates, businesses gave gifts, and motel owners Donald and Mary Lou Birch did not charge for his five-day stay.

The island's volunteer firefighters, who own the herd and run the auction, also heard Noah's story.

At the auction, ``They wouldn't let anyone bid against me,'' Sanz said, and added, ``But we would have done anything to get that pony.''

When the firefighters presented the pony to Noah, ``He actually got out of his wheelchair and held it,'' Sanz said.

They will call the pony Noah's Shadow. The Kauffmans can't keep him at their Englewood, Fla., residence, so the pony will be set free on Assateague Island. Sanz said he will do whatever it takes to bring Noah and his pony together occasionally at the Sanz farm in Del Ray, Fla.

Sanz and his wife, Cynthia, said they lost a newborn seven years ago to birth defects. They are starting a program for handicapped children at their farm, and caring for horses will be part of it.

``We just believe in helping kids whenever we can,'' Cynthia said.

``As much as Noah can't do, this little horse is going to be running around the island doing it for him,'' she said. ``That's the way I see it.''

The Sanz family bought three other ponies. They also gave $300 to help a New Jersey girl buy a pony.

The girl had returned to the auction year after year and was consistently outbid - until the Sanzes stepped in, said an auction official.

David Sanz, a Norfolk native, distributed the credit. He described Chincoteague as a ``beautiful community.''

``Everybody in Chincoteague has got a heart as big as anything,'' he said. ``It's obvious it's not about the money.'' ILLUSTRATION: THE AUCTION

Total revenue from auction: $153,800, topping last year's high of

$130,000.

Number sold: 92, compared to last year's 74.

Highest bid: $4,600, lower than last year's highest-ever bid of

$6,000.

Lowest bid: $900, higher than last year's lowest bid of $700.

Raffle winner: Ken Broadwater of Cartersville, Va., won ``King

Neptune,'' the first colt to step on shore at the pony swim.

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