How You Can Make a Difference
Times are tough, as we all well know. For organizations such as The Make-A-Wish Foundation, decreasing donations means cutting back on the breadth and depth of Wishes that can be granted. Beleagured families, battle-weary from whatever critical illness the child has, need this respite now more than ever. Betty Crocker has teamed up with the MAW Foundation and is running an advertising promotion for its website and products. Here's how you can help! You go to this website: http://www.bettycrocker.com/StirringUpWishes/Default.aspx and register (there is a hard to see log in button in red under and to the right of the Support button). And then you vote for the NH chapter by scrolling your mouse over the state of NH and clicking on the yellow button there. That's it! You can vote once daily. Betty Crocker is going to fund the granting of 12 Wishes over 12 weeks, and you can help that happen simply by voting once daily. Please take a few minutes of your time to do this...once you've logged on the first time, you can add the website to your favorites and then it will take less than a minute each day, and cost you nothing.
Our granddaughter had her Wish granted in March of 2004. She and her parents and little brother went to Disney World. Chuck and I and her other grandparents went along to help, but we provided our own funding (many families cannot afford to pay for the extra people to accompany them and thus miss out on having more hands to make light work!). We exchanged our timeshare for a place just outside of Disney and Chuck and I stayed there the first four nights and then left it to the other grandparents from Ohio; in that way we didn't overwhelm the kids with four doting grandparents trying to be helpful all at once!
They stayed at Give Kids the World, an absolutely amazing "resort" for families of children with illnesses in Kissimmee. First they were picked up at home by a limo, which transported them to the local airport. There they were met by their very own Wish Granter, helped through the rigamarole of boarding, and then met again in Orlando by a Wish Granter there carrying a huge sign with Emma' s name on it. No waiting in line for their rental car....keys tossed to them as they passed by the counter and headed to GKTW. Do yourselves a favor and go to the website for this amazing refuge, and read all about how it got started and what it does for its visitors. Later today I hope to add pictures from there and the rest of the Wish Week. In each "villa" were huge Mickey and Minnie dolls and several other gifts for the children, and a refrigerator and freezer full of kid-friendly foods and treats. At night you could sign up for characters to come and read bedtime stories. The cookie cart rode up and down the streets, jingling its bell to signal its presence outside your door. Why a cookie cart and not ice cream? Because the ice cream palace is open 24/7! One morning we were headed to the dining hall for breakfast when the volunteer from the ice cream store ran out to greet us. Obviously he was lonely, and he did everything in his power to convince us that he had all the basic food groups for breakfast: fruit (bananas, cherries, strawberries, blueberries), dairy (milk, whipped cream), nuts, waffle cones.....well, you get the picture! Of course we succumbed and had every child's dream breakfast (wasn't too shabby for the adults either!). There was a sprayground, a carousel, and a main building where each Wish child filled out a star that was then put on the ceiling which resembled a night sky. In the darkness each star glowed, and Emma could see her Star among all the others of the children who'd been there.
At Disney itself the family had special passes and wore a special name tag which subtlely identified them as Wish people....and so never had to wait in line, and got extra special treatment from the many characters throughout the park. When we saw Woody and Buzz we despaired because there was a long line, and we really didn't feel comfortable flaunting our status as a Wish family. So Emma and I got in the line and waited....about 20 minutes later we made it to the front, and then Woody and Buzz made an enormous deal over her and her dad caught it all on video. Then the Disney worker in charge of the area scolded us and told us that everyone understood about Wish kids and how they tire easily and deserve special attention for all that they were going through, and that we were never to wait in line again! People behind us didn't seem to mind a bit that Emma got extra time with the characters, so we followed that dictum from then on.
I cannot describe how incredibly renewing to the spirit this Wish Trip was for our entire family. Our daughter and her husband had been to hell and back, scrambling to understand what was happening to Emma (more on that later) and all the medical terms and decisions while trying to keep things normal for Owen who was just a baby, 12 weeks old, when Em was diagnosed. They wrestled with schedules, getting Emma to appointments and therapy while seeing that Owen was covered at home. Friends, relatives and neighbors all helped, but it was (and still continues to be) a prolonged nightmare. To be treated as royalty, to have all those worries and cares set aside even for just a very short week, allowed them to forget about all of this and just "be".......and I cannot tell you how needed and appreciated this was for everyone.
Tip #45:
So, please, find the time today to log on to the Betty Crocker site and vote for the NH chapter so that the organization can continue to grant these Wishes. I volunteer there one day a week (even though it means traveling 50 miles round trip to do so, that's how impressed I was by what they do!) and so see first hand how many children there are in dire need of this opportunity, and how difficult it has become to find the funding to do so. Thank you, in advance, from the bottom of these very grateful grandparents' hearts. See how easily you can make a difference in a child's life.
Times are tough, as we all well know. For organizations such as The Make-A-Wish Foundation, decreasing donations means cutting back on the breadth and depth of Wishes that can be granted. Beleagured families, battle-weary from whatever critical illness the child has, need this respite now more than ever. Betty Crocker has teamed up with the MAW Foundation and is running an advertising promotion for its website and products. Here's how you can help! You go to this website: http://www.bettycrocker.com/StirringUpWishes/Default.aspx and register (there is a hard to see log in button in red under and to the right of the Support button). And then you vote for the NH chapter by scrolling your mouse over the state of NH and clicking on the yellow button there. That's it! You can vote once daily. Betty Crocker is going to fund the granting of 12 Wishes over 12 weeks, and you can help that happen simply by voting once daily. Please take a few minutes of your time to do this...once you've logged on the first time, you can add the website to your favorites and then it will take less than a minute each day, and cost you nothing.
Our granddaughter had her Wish granted in March of 2004. She and her parents and little brother went to Disney World. Chuck and I and her other grandparents went along to help, but we provided our own funding (many families cannot afford to pay for the extra people to accompany them and thus miss out on having more hands to make light work!). We exchanged our timeshare for a place just outside of Disney and Chuck and I stayed there the first four nights and then left it to the other grandparents from Ohio; in that way we didn't overwhelm the kids with four doting grandparents trying to be helpful all at once!
They stayed at Give Kids the World, an absolutely amazing "resort" for families of children with illnesses in Kissimmee. First they were picked up at home by a limo, which transported them to the local airport. There they were met by their very own Wish Granter, helped through the rigamarole of boarding, and then met again in Orlando by a Wish Granter there carrying a huge sign with Emma' s name on it. No waiting in line for their rental car....keys tossed to them as they passed by the counter and headed to GKTW. Do yourselves a favor and go to the website for this amazing refuge, and read all about how it got started and what it does for its visitors. Later today I hope to add pictures from there and the rest of the Wish Week. In each "villa" were huge Mickey and Minnie dolls and several other gifts for the children, and a refrigerator and freezer full of kid-friendly foods and treats. At night you could sign up for characters to come and read bedtime stories. The cookie cart rode up and down the streets, jingling its bell to signal its presence outside your door. Why a cookie cart and not ice cream? Because the ice cream palace is open 24/7! One morning we were headed to the dining hall for breakfast when the volunteer from the ice cream store ran out to greet us. Obviously he was lonely, and he did everything in his power to convince us that he had all the basic food groups for breakfast: fruit (bananas, cherries, strawberries, blueberries), dairy (milk, whipped cream), nuts, waffle cones.....well, you get the picture! Of course we succumbed and had every child's dream breakfast (wasn't too shabby for the adults either!). There was a sprayground, a carousel, and a main building where each Wish child filled out a star that was then put on the ceiling which resembled a night sky. In the darkness each star glowed, and Emma could see her Star among all the others of the children who'd been there.
At Disney itself the family had special passes and wore a special name tag which subtlely identified them as Wish people....and so never had to wait in line, and got extra special treatment from the many characters throughout the park. When we saw Woody and Buzz we despaired because there was a long line, and we really didn't feel comfortable flaunting our status as a Wish family. So Emma and I got in the line and waited....about 20 minutes later we made it to the front, and then Woody and Buzz made an enormous deal over her and her dad caught it all on video. Then the Disney worker in charge of the area scolded us and told us that everyone understood about Wish kids and how they tire easily and deserve special attention for all that they were going through, and that we were never to wait in line again! People behind us didn't seem to mind a bit that Emma got extra time with the characters, so we followed that dictum from then on.
I cannot describe how incredibly renewing to the spirit this Wish Trip was for our entire family. Our daughter and her husband had been to hell and back, scrambling to understand what was happening to Emma (more on that later) and all the medical terms and decisions while trying to keep things normal for Owen who was just a baby, 12 weeks old, when Em was diagnosed. They wrestled with schedules, getting Emma to appointments and therapy while seeing that Owen was covered at home. Friends, relatives and neighbors all helped, but it was (and still continues to be) a prolonged nightmare. To be treated as royalty, to have all those worries and cares set aside even for just a very short week, allowed them to forget about all of this and just "be".......and I cannot tell you how needed and appreciated this was for everyone.
Tip #45:
So, please, find the time today to log on to the Betty Crocker site and vote for the NH chapter so that the organization can continue to grant these Wishes. I volunteer there one day a week (even though it means traveling 50 miles round trip to do so, that's how impressed I was by what they do!) and so see first hand how many children there are in dire need of this opportunity, and how difficult it has become to find the funding to do so. Thank you, in advance, from the bottom of these very grateful grandparents' hearts. See how easily you can make a difference in a child's life.
