Making Wishes Come True
Siana Austin Hunt, new director of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, says a study shows that severely ill kids whose wishes are granted by the agency show improvements in happiness and optimism, and in their health. And it’s good for their families too. With her are former wishees (clockwise from top left) Quinn, Alexandra, Reece and Xander
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at Pepperdine University. After earning her B.A., Hunt taught first and second grade on the Mainland for a couple of years before returning to the Islands and returning to Punahou as a substitute teacher. She also joined the boards of the Daughters of Hawaii and the Judiciary History Center, where she helped to coordinate various galas and fundraisers. Hunt found herself deeply engrossed in the work. At only 23, she founded Signature Style, an event production and consulting firm. Hunt continued her work with Signature Style and as a substitute teacher until joining Make-A-Wish. As the executive director, Hunt is responsible for overseeing all of the organization’s operations, including facilitating wish-granting, coordinating volunteers and broad-scale development and strategizing.
At Make-A-Wish Foundation, Hunt is able to combine two of her passions helping children and planning great events. Her love for turning wishes into reality is obvious Hunt is like an encyclopedia of wish stories, effortlessly rattling off tales of past and present wish kids. Wide-eyed and smiling when she talks about granted wishes, there is something distinctly winsome about Hunt herself.
She tells about an 8-year-old wish child on Molokai who has eight brothers and sisters. His only wish, she says, is to be able to play with his siblings outside. His treatment made him sensitive to the sun, so he is forced to stay inside, watching his siblings play from the window. Make-A-Wish is in the process of building a canopy backyard playground for him.
Hunt also talks about 2-and-a-halfyear-old Alexandra, who was sent to the Big Island to swim with the dolphins last month. Right before their arrival, a baby dolphin was born. Each day of her trip, Alexandra swam with the dolphins, and on her last day, she got to name the baby dolphin. Nowadays she totes around dolphin stuffed animals, and the dolphin she named Ipo is all she talks about.
Wishes are granted to children from ages 2-and-a-half to 18. Kids can wish to have something, go somewhere, meet someone or be something and they can fill in that blank with virtually anything. Wishes have traditionally fallen into one of these categories, but in recent years, a new wish category is beginning to form. Within the last two years, Hunt explains, an increasing number of kids have been using their wish to grant others’ wishes, starting with a high school student in San Diego who wanted new equipment for his football team.
“The purpose of a wish is to give children and families a fresh perspective on hope, strength and joy,” Hunt says. “It lets them experience a time away from the hospitals, away from the treatment; it’s that human element that you can’t measure in a treatment plan.”
The Wish Impact Survey, a 2010 study conducted by an independent consulting firm, measured the impact of Make-A-Wish’s work and backs up Hunt’s assertions with quantitative data. The study concludes that “a wish is a source of emotional strength for children, helping them deal with their illnesses and substantially contributing to improved physical strength.” According to the study, a wish can generate improvements in a child’s perception or outlook, and subsequently have the potential to yield a shift in a patient’s physical health. The study also found that a wish can have a positive impact on a patient’s family by improving emotional well-being.
But you don’t need quantitative measurements to see how Make-A-Wish has impacted the lives of wish children and their families. 9-year-old Xander, who was battling Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and his parents were sent to Disney World last summer for his wish.
“Last year I was in and out of hospitals,” he explains. “I had to go through chemotherapy and intense radiation therapy.” His trip to Disney World was a much-needed summer vacation for the three of them. Xander got to eat all the pizza and ice cream he wanted, meet Disney characters and go on all the rides including his alltime favorite, the Harry Potter ride.
Make-A-Wish sent 12year-old Reece to Disney World, Universal Studios and SeaWorld with his family. Reece was battling a form of cancer called germinoma in his pituitary gland. His treatment included chemotherapy, radiation and biopsies.
At Disney World, he says, they treated him like royalty. Reece, his older brother and parents had a blast at the park, going on rides, meeting movie characters and spending time together as a family.
Reece is already giving back to Make-A-Wish. Earlier this month, he wrapped his letter-writing campaign, in which Macy’s donated $2 for each letter to Santa Claus. He surpassed his initial goal of 5,000 and collected more than 7,000 letters, which raised more than $14,000.
Quinn, now a high school sophomore, was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma, a malignant tumor, in his left adrenal gland when he was just 5 years old. His treatment lasted more than a year and included radiation, therapy, multiple surgeries and daily shots.
When Make-A-Wish asked him what he wanted most in the world, his response was simple: He loved animals and he had never seen snow before. From that, his wishgranters designed a personalized trip to combine these elements by sending him to Alaska to watch the Iditarod dogsled race. He got to ride in the ceremonial start of the race and meet the dogs. He also played in the snow with his parents, building snowmen, making snow angels and sledding.
Years later, Quinn and his family still remember their trip fondly and are giving back to the organization. Quinn was assigned to do an internship as part of a school project and immediately thought of Make-A-Wish. And he and his mother, Rachel, have recently signed up to be wish-granters. They have just been assigned their first case and are now working to help a young child’s wish come true.
“Cancer played a huge part in my life, and I think that this would be the most personal thing to do,” he says. “And the trip to Alaska meant a lot to my family because they didn’t have to worry.”
Rachel says that Make-A-Wish gave them “something as powerful as hope. To have your child have their spirit rekindled after going through such trauma in their lives, much more than any child should go through.”
Part of the beauty of granting a wish is that it means something different to each child and to each family, and “it’s the intangible, it’s the magic,” Rachel says. “It’s the butterflies that come from the moment that you determine what your wish is going to be, to when you actually go on it, to what you think back on 15 years down the road after the wish has already happened.”
“Quinn said when the assignment came out, ‘All I could think about was going back and doing something for another child,’” Hunt says, beaming. “That’s the power of a wish. It stays with you,” she says, and after a pause, “It stays with me.” For more, visit makeawishhawaii.org.
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