By Ruth Ann Ruiz
The Post Newspaper Features Editor
Just how many pieces of bubble gum are in the jar? There are 575, and they represent the wishes granted to critically ill children this past year by the Texas Gulf Coast and Louisiana Chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, according to Shelly Millwee, chapter CEO.
On a recent visit to the Houston office, Millwee and her staff took me on a journey through their gallery of children’s photos whose wishes have been granted. The beginnings of Make-A-Wish were familiar to me as it all started in Arizona back when I was a young person in Tucson. The details of each child were shared with me by Millwee and her staff.
Granting wishes to critically ill children all started when 7-year-old Christopher James Greicius, in Phoenix, Arizona, who had leukemia, just wanted to be a police officer for a day. This little boy was surrounded by friends and family who were able to make his wish come true.
The official Arizona Department of Safety seamstresses crafted Christopher’s authentic Arizona State Police officer uniform to fit his young body. He spent an entire day taking part in police officer tasks. Later, little Chris lost his battle with cancer.
As the media in Arizona shared his story, people throughout the state were brought to tears. Tommy Austin, who was part of the team who helped grant the young boy’s wish, was so stirred by the experience that he set out to create Make-A-Wish as a non-profit organization that grants wishes for other children.
Out of Christopher’s short life grew the now-international Make-A-Wish Foundation, which has chapters serving every community in the United States and communities in 70 other nations.
Four-year-old Travis just wanted his grandma to rock him one more time. The team at Make-A-Wish in Houston arranged for his grandma to fly from Chicago to Houston. In a rocking chair, right next to his hospital bed, she gently cradled her dying grandson.
Leukemia claimed Travis’ life but not without him knowing the peace of his grandma’s arms.
Critically ill children are thrust down a trek that is filled with painful moments and a lot of uncertainty. Their families are absorbed in medical meetings, medical care, medical decision-making, and a long list of outside of the ordinary tasks that they must address. Families of critically ill children have very little time left over to grant the wishes of their critically ill children once they see to these necessities.
This is where a team of trained professionals and volunteers are invited to step in and make their wishes come true.
“We don’t call families,” Millwee explained. “They come to us via referrals from medical teams or family friends or sometimes the family calls us.”
Granting wishes isn’t just about creating fun and happy times. In many cases, it provides a psychological boost that the child and family need to make a turning point in their treatment and results in lifelong change.
The Make-A-wish office in Houston has 24 paid staff members. The rest of the team is made up of more than 500 volunteers.
Each family the organization helps is assigned a volunteer who meets with them and asks the child what his or her wish is.
With advances in medical treatment, diagnoses that were once bleak and meant children wouldn’t live, now have more optimistic prognoses.
When five-year-old Robby said he wanted to be the boss of the ice cream man for a day, his volunteer had to coax out of him exactly what he meant — that he wanted the ice cream truck to give away ice cream to all the boys and girls. The team at Make-A-Wish set out to make it happen.
Robby is now an adult, and the staff at Make-A-Wish report that he is actively involved as a volunteer in supporting the foundation.
Like Robby did, other children have had wishes that go beyond their own happiness and elect to do something special for others.
Seventeen-year-old Cecilia had been going to kidney dialysis three times a week for seven years. When she was granted a wish, she asked for a shopping spree and bought gifts to give to other children at kidney dialysis centers. She has since had a kidney transplant, and the team at Make-A-Wish reports she is doing well.
Some critically ill children need equipment to cope with their illness that health insurance doesn’t cover, such as an adaptive bicycle or a wheelchair that floats in water. Make-A-Wish steps in and obtains this equipment.
During COVID-19 shutdown, another foundation was born in Houston.
“We had a lot of requests for backyard playsets,” Millwee shared.
This prompted the local Make-A-Wish team to reach out to Houston-area contractors, and thus Builders of Hope was formed.
Builders of Hope has built 15 play yards for Make-A-Wish children since 2021, according to Millwee.
As Make a Wish has evolved to provide wishes for children who are critically ill, not just terminally ill, the ways the organization changes the lives of the children and families they serve have increased dramatically.
Reaching beyond the moment and into a child’s future is a more common reality for Make-A-Wish than it used to be. Some examples of providing for the future include granting tuition for college wishes. One teenager just wanted to own his own lawn care business; Turbo Cuts was created for him. Today, as an adult, he is still running his own lawn care service.
Ten-year-old Melinda, who was battling cancer, told her volunteer wish team that she wanted to be an artist with her work displayed for the public. The team went to work and soon she was attending private art lessons with Houston’s very own Edgar Medina.
Granting each child’s wish as spectacularly as possible is what the team in Houston strives to do. Millwee started making phone calls, and in less time than it would take her to count the bubble gum in the jar, she had a commitment from Clear Channel Media to host Melinda’s artwork on 17 billboards in the Houston area.
Melinda’s future as an artist is now possible thanks to the Make-A-Wish team and her medical providers.
Make-A-Wish could not grant wishes and change lives, if it weren’t for the generosity of the people in the communities they serve. It is not just generosity of financial donations — which is very needed — it’s also the generosity of having goods and services donated that allows critically ill children to have their wishes granted.
For example, groups who make quilts and caps for children to keep them warm during their treatments are part of the team of volunteers.
Donating time, talent, and skills as did artist Edgar Medina and the Builders of Hope is another way volunteers are utilized.
Volunteers are the key to Make-A-Wish’s success, reports Millwee and her staff. Volunteers are needed to work with families across the Galveston Houston-region and in those areas that bump up next to Louisiana along with all 64 Louisiana parishes.
Make a Wish grants many wishes that are trips on airplanes, such as going to Hawaii or going to visit extended family members. These trips are often made possible by airline miles that have been donated to Make a Wish.
United Airlines is right now matching miles donated.
“United will match up to 1,000,000 miles of MileagePlus member donations made to the Make-A-Wish Foundation between 12 a.m. Central time, December 1, 2023, and 11:59 p.m. Central time on December 31, 2023,” announced the United Airlines website.
If you don’t have United miles, you can still donate your miles from other airlines to Make-A-Wish at https://wish.org/texgulf/wishes-flight.
For more information about volunteering, donating to or referring a child to Make-A-Wish in our area, visit the chapter website at https://wish.org/texgulf
