Community Based Learning Project

Power & Imagination Spring 2015

Aaron, Caitlin, Nofar,
Tia, Vance, and Victoria
Make-A-Wish
Quiet, dimly lit hallways, the powerful smell of sanitizer, nurses waking you
up every 30 minutes to take vitals, and living every day with an unknown fate are
all things that would upset anyone, let alone an ill child. Every kid dreams of being
a superhero, princess, professional athlete or their favorite movie character. Sadly
these dreams are not achievable for children with life threatening illnesses. Their
health is the only thing getting the attention and, after medical costs, parents
generally cant afford to provide these experiences for their child. Make-A-Wish is a
nonprofit organization that addresses this problem by granting wishes for sick
children. Every year Make-A-Wish grants thousands of wishes for ill children, and
the organization only continues to grow support and recognition every day.
Somewhere right now, a sick childs dream is coming true.
Make-A-Wish was founded in 1980 in Phoenix, Arizona. Their first project was
for a seven-year-old boy named Christopher James Greicius who was being treated
for leukemia. Chris had always wanted to be a police officer. Customs Officer
Tommy Austin befriended the child and worked with the Phoenix's local police
department to plan an event that would uplift Chris. The boy spent an entire day as
a police officer, rode in a helicopter, received a custom-tailored uniform, and was

sworn in as the first honorary Department of Public Safety patrolman in Arizonas

history.
The Make-A-Wish organization blazed a trail for other wish-granting groups to
follow. Similar organizations such as the Wishing Well Foundation, Kids Wish
Network and HopeKids were created in the late 1980s to early 1990s after seeing
the positive impact granting a simple wish could have on sick kids. In Oregon, there
are very few non profit organizations similar to Make-A-Wish, so the foundation is
the prime source of granting wishes in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Luckily,
this local Make-A-Wish chapter is of course thrilled at the opportunity to grant all
these Wishes for sick children.
For a child to be granted a wish they must be referred to Make-A-Wish by
either a primary medical care provider, parent or legal guardian, or they may refer
themselves. The child must meet a few different criteria to be eligible for the
foundation to grant his or her wish. They must be between the ages of three and
seventeen, at the time of referral, and have a life threatening medical condition.
Lauren Pyrch, the Oregon branch's Wish Coordinator, emphasized that the child
does not need to have a terminal illness. They are portrayed in the media as an
organization that provides wishes for children with cancer, but the foundation
wishes to change that image. The organization does not only grant wishes for
cancer, but for any child dealing with a life threatening illness.
Once the child has been accepted, a medical care provider must determine
whether or not the child is healthy enough for the wish. This is based on Make-aWishs own medical criteria. As found out in the interview, this process involves

filling out plenty of paperwork and collecting doctor signatures. In addition, the
child cannot have received a wish from another wish-granting organization. Most of
Make-A-Wishs wishes fall into one of five categories: I wish to go, I wish to be, I
wish to meet, I wish to have, I wish to give.
Today, Make-A-Wish is a nationwide organization. The foundation is helping
children all over the United States. According to Make-A-Wish, the organization
serves every community in the US and its territories. Make-A-Wish currently grants
a wish approximately every thirty eight minutes, and a child is referred every
twenty eight minutes. According to statistics released in August 2014, a wish costs
an average of $8,141. The organization has to constantly fundraise in order to keep
up with the wishes. They have a wide variety of ways in which a donor can assist.
Accepted donations range from money, cars or even stocks. They also host several
fundraising events throughout the year. Make-A-Wish Oregon has a fundraising
walk, an online fundraiser as well as a child run fundraiser to help fellow children.
They also greatly profit from selling their merchandise. The organization sells tshirts, backpacks and water bottles. One can also sponsor an ill child to fund their
whole wish granting experience.
Since its founding in 1980 Make-A-Wish has become widespread and
successful organization. Television shows, movies and celebrities have been the
leading promotion factors for Make-A-Wish. Television programs such as South
Park, Family Guy and Sports Center have featured Make-A-Wish as a theme in one
or more episodes, thus making the organization well known nationwide. Celebrities
including Adam Sandler, Bill Clinton, Harrison Ford, Paris Hilton, Paramore, Toby

Keith, Zac Efron and many others have all taken part in granting children's wishes.
Professional wrestler John Cena currently holds the record for the most wishes
granted by an individual, with more than 450 wishes granted. The person with the
second most wishes granted is Justin Bieber. Make-A-Wish already has a great
representation, but the celebrity involvement boosts the foundations reputation.
One of the largest and most elaborate wishes Make-A-Wish has ever
accomplished was for Miles Scott in San Francisco. Miles Scott was diagnosed with
leukemia at the age of only eighteen months old. He is now in remission and the
wish was in honor of his completing treatment. His mother and Make-A-Wish
postponed the event so that he would be healthy enough for the day and to give
him something to look forward to once he finished treatment. Once Miles' request
went out, thousands of volunteers worked together to turn San Francisco into
"Gotham City".
The day consisted of various staged events including multiple crime scene
scenarios and receiving the key to the city from Mayor Ed Lee. President Obama
even sent Miles a personal video wishing him well. San Francisco's main newspaper,
the San Francisco Chronicle, ran a special paper called the "Gotham City Chronicle".
Miles Scott got to throw the ceremonial first pitch at the Giants' 2014 opening
game. There is currently a documentary in the works directed by Dana Nachman
that will tell the story of the batkid that captured millions of peoples attention,
thanks to Make-A-Wish.
In our interview with Lauren Pyrch who is the Office and Wish Coordinator at
the foundation and Parvaneh Givi who is the Wish and Volunteer Services Director

we learned a lot about the organization. Parvaneh has been working at the local
chapter of Make-A-Wish since August when she was chosen out of 130 applicants
for the position, while Lauren has been a part of the foundation for many years but
just began her new position there in April. They were asked to share their favorite
experiences while at the foundation. Lauren chose a recent event that they put
together for a little boy who got to play against the Timbers. Parvaneh talked about
how even though many children make similar wishes, each experience is tailored
specifically to that child. Decidedly, she chose her favorite wish to be that of a little
boy named Joel. Joel had a type of brain cancer and they knew they had to put his
wish together within a week. The whole team was able to make the wish happen,
which was a huge firework show.
We then asked what an average day was like for the two of them. Parvaneh
said that she mainly reviews medical eligibility, follows up with physicians, fills out
paperwork, and makes sure wishes can be granted on track to meet their yearly
goal, for this year that is 210 wishes. Lauren spends her days at work taking
referrals for wish children and talking to families and parents about the wish, for
example, what they want. For the future of the foundation, they are hoping to meet
their yearly goal. Currently Make-A-Wish Oregon is at 120 wishes as of the end of
April and are on track to complete 145 wishes by the end of May. Their year starts
on September 1st and end on August 31st. They would also like to be able to grant
250 successful wishes per year for the next three years.
They measure the success of a wish by being able to capture the spirit or
heart of the childs wish. After the wish has been received, surveys are sent to the

families which generally get nearly perfect scores. The success of a fundraising
event is measured by how well the set goal was met, engaging new partners,
donors, or sponsors, and making sure that it is a fun event that goes smoothly.
When asked if companies and locations are generally cooperative with the
foundation, they replied that they are. Everyone is very willing to do whatever they
can to make it a great experience for the child. Disney being their number one
supporter, gives them free tickets for the childrens wishes. Along with that, with
every travel wish, there is a send off party which is usually hosted by Buffalo Wild
Wings or even Bullwinkles. Alaska Airlines also gives Make-A-Wish Oregon 140 free
flight vouchers a year to use on wishes. Plus, community members can donate their
frequent flier miles to help wish makers travel affordably.
Lauren and Parvaneh said that the biggest challenge the foundation deals
with is reaching every eligible child in Oregon and Clark County, Washington. The
reason for this is that many physicians and families may not be aware that their
child is eligible. As far as media portrayal, they are very satisfied with how the
foundation is displayed. They feel that there is a very positive and uplifting
portrayal. The only change that they would change about the process of Make-AWish is that it is very policy driven, there is not much control over how things are
done. Other than that, they would not change much, they believe they have very
good safeguards that work really well. If they themselves could Make-A-Wish for
the foundation, it would be that every single eligible child could have their wish
granted.

As far as finances needed to grant the wishes, they were able to give us
some information about that. The average wish costs about $5,000, is a wish is
estimated to cost between $10,000 and $20,000, it becomes very questionable. If it
is too expensive, they go back to the family and try and find the goal of the wish.
For example, one childs wish was to have a new turf field for their soccer team to
play on. That was estimated to be about half a million dollars, so they went back
and talked to the family. It turns out that they child just wanted to give back to
their soccer team, so they ended up buying new equipment for the team instead.
Because Make-A-Wish is such a large foundation, there is not much competition
that they come in contact with.
Make-A-Wish also doesnt partner with any similar organizations, but they
will pair with large companies to raise funds and awareness for their foundation. As
an example, in 2009 the pharmaceutical company Allergan launched a public
awareness campaign aiming to generate $1 million to support the Make-A-Wish
Foundation. The company personally made a donation of $500,000 and is
encouraging consumers to help double that amount. They also stated that they will
donate $5 for each new visitor who registered online before the end of the year, up
to an additional $500,000. David Williams, the CEO of Make-A-Wish said, Forty
seconds is all it takes to visit [latisse.com] to register your support and help make
wishes come true." You dont have to be rich or have an abundance of resources to
make a difference, or to make a wish come true, all it takes is support.
According to an article by Jan Richardson, in the Journal of the American
Physical Therapy Association, the phrase think, believe, dream, dare was originally

told to a Make-A-Wish child by Mr Walt Disney. Jan Richardson once read a story
about a critically ill child that wished to meet Mr. Walt Disney. When her day finally
came, she said to him "I think you're the smartest man in the world, and I want to
be like you when I grow up. How can I do that?". He replied by saying, "There are
four words which I have always used to guide me, and, when you grow up,
remember them and live by them. The first word is think. Think about the values
and principles that are important to you. The second word is believe. Believe in
yourself and upon the thinking you have done. The third word is dream. Dream
about what you want to become, based on your belief in yourself. And the last word
is dare. Dare to make your dream a reality." Many people now chose to live by
these words, including Richardson. Her dream is for the title Doctor of Physical
Therapy to become a universally accepted term.
It is safe to say that the past 35 years has been a great success for the
Make-A-Wish organization. Bringing hope to those who have lost can be one of the
best feelings in the world. If there is something that can be done to make an ill
childs life a little better, we should not hesitate to do it. The Make-A-Wish
foundation is there to help organize the efforts of the public, and find the most
efficient ways to put resources towards making their goals a reality. Not only to
have a handful of wishes come true, but to fulfill every sick childs wish, and restore
some hope to them and their families during troubling times.

Works Cited:
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12 May 2015.
Richardson, Jan K. "My Dream Is a Wish." Physical Therapy Nov. 1998: 1220.
Academic OneFile. Web. 14 May 2015.
Weinman, Jaime J. "Miles, the littlest Batman." Maclean's 2 Dec. 2013: 10.
Academic OneFile. Web. 14 May 2015.
"Allergan launches public awareness campaign." Ophthalmology Times 1 May
2009: 12+.Academic OneFile. Web. 28 May 2015.
"Arizona Jack in the Box restaurants raises $100K for Make-a-Wish
Foundation." QSRweb.com 13 Apr. 2015. General OneFile. Web. 28 May 2015.
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Make-A-Wish, n.d. Web. 12 May 2015.
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"Make-A-Wish Foundation: Celebrity Supporters." The World of Celebrity
Giving. Look to the Stars, n.d. Web. 12 May 2015.
"Making Wishes Come True for Children with Life-threatening
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