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Make a Wish solicits referrals of potential ‘Wish’ kids
The Make A Wish Foundation of Guam, which also serves the CNMI community, reached out yesterday to the Rotary Club of Saipan and encouraged its members to refer any child with a life-threatening illness who may have a wish the foundation can grant.
“We won’t say no because we will find a way to make it happen,” said Make A Wish executive director Victor Camacho, who was guest speaker in the Rotary’s regular meeting at the Hyatt Regency Saipan.
Camacho said a child between 2-and-half years old and 18 years old with any life-threatening condition is qualified.
“We always ask for money, that is part of our mission to survive and need a support from the community. More importantly, we are asking for your help for referrals. The only way to service the kids and reach out to the kids who qualify is if we find out who they are and reach out to their families and have their wish granted,” he said.
Camacho said they should be reaching out to 25 children a year in the CNMI but so far is only managing to reach about 18 a year.
“We want to reach out to those kids somewhere and if you know someone with a life-threatening condition then please refer them to Make A Wish,” he said. “We’d rather have a referral that may or may not qualify versus not getting a referral at all because people are just hesitant to be declined by the Make A Wish Foundation.”
Camacho noted that majority of children’s wishes is to go to Disneyland. Other wishes involve travel, in which Make A Wish sends the “wish kid” and his or her family off-island.
The Make-A-Wish Foundation grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength, and joy. The foundation is one of the world’s leading children’s charities, with 64 chapters in the United States and its territories.
With the help of donors and nearly 25,000 volunteers, the foundation grants a wish every 40 minutes and has granted more than 200,000 wishes in the United States since its inception.
For more information on Make A Wish Guam call 483-WISH.
