MAKE A WISH FOUNDATION

Posted by Dot Jeger

The Bluffton Rotary Club learned more about the Make A Wish Foundation and its activities during the July 16th meeting, when Phil Essman, former Board Member for the Foundation, joined us. The Make a Wish Foundation was started in Phoenix in 1980 with the wish of one child struggling with Leukemia. Following the successful granting of this first child's wish, the desire to do more spread very quickly, leading to the Make A Wish Foundation we know today. The Make a Wish Foundation grants the wish of a child every 40 minutes; 14,000 wishes were granted in the US last year, about 150 of those were in SC and about 12 here in the LowCountry Region of SC. Children between the ages of 2 ½ and 18 years old with a life-threatening disease are eligible for consideration. Parents, guardians, medical professional and the wish children themselves can all make referrals for a wish. The average cost of each wish is $6,000 and an average of 42% of the children chooses to go to Disney World for their wish.

Essman shared some personal stories of children he knew about or worked with over the past years and also showed a short presentation of many children receiving wishes. One powerful story, Hope's Wish, will be released as a movie this fall.

The Make A Wish Foundation has had over 25,000 volunteers and only 8 paid staff members to get the job done for these children. 88 - 90% of every donated dollar goes directly to the cost of granting a child's wish. To find more information about Make a Wish Foundation, volunteer, donate or make a referral, go to the Foundation's website at www.wish.org.