BonnerSprings.com

Making a sick child’s dreams come true is enough to put a smile on anyone’s face.

“For the kids it’s about getting away from their sickness and seeing that there is so much more to them than just the sickness they face,” said Kendra Gray, volunteer development coordinator of the Make-A-Wish Foundation’s Kansas City Program Center.

But those smiles are getting harder and harder to make happen.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation is in need of volunteers in the Wyandotte County area, Gray said. While the center grants children’s wishes throughout the Kansas City area and surrounding counties, Wyandotte County is greatly underrepresented by volunteers.

The Make-A Wish Foundation grants wishes to children, ages 2 to 18, who are dealing with a life-threatening medical condition.

“If just for a short period of time, we’re giving the family a way out to not think about the kid’s life-threatening medical condition,” Gray said.

In the last three years, since the Kansas City center was started, Gray said there have been 10 wishes made by Wyandotte County youths. Since then, there have only been two volunteers to carry those wishes out, and each wish requires a minimum of two granters.

“We’ve gone wish crazy, which is good,” Gray said, “but now we’re in need of more wish granters.”

When the foundation receives a wish request from a parent or doctor, a volunteer goes into the home to talk with the ill child. That person tries to figure out what the child really wants their wish to be.

Most of the wishes requested by the foundation, Gray said, are to visit Disney World. Others in Wyandotte County have included a swimming pool, a shopping spree and a room makeover.

Following the request, Gray said it was the volunteers’ job to see the wish all the way to fruition. Most wishes take three months to complete, but others could be shorter depending on the request.

“(The volunteers) are the face of Make-A-Wish,” Gray said about the volunteers’ role in the program.

The foundation provides the money and resources, but it’s the volunteers who put in the manpower and make sure the children get what they want.

Despite having an abundance of volunteers in neighboring Johnson County, Gray said the foundation likes to have volunteers working with children in their own counties.

“I think it makes it more personal for you to take these kids on,” Gray said.

Gray said the Kansas City center hasn’t been around for very long, making her wonder if people just didn’t know the volunteer opportunities were available.

To help get the word out, the Kansas City center will be conducting an informational meeting for potential volunteers from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21, in Lenexa. For the exact location, Gray has requested that interested participants contact her at (816) 889-9474 or kgray@kc.wish.org.

Volunteers must be 21 years or older and a background check is required before being trained as a wish granter.

Gray said when a volunteer completes their first wish, more often than not, they come back saying something like, “Wow, that’s a really good feeling.”

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