The Make-A-Wish Foundation grants over 15,000 wishes a year, on average one wish every 34 minutes, to children with critical illnesses.
How Make-A-Wish helps:
Since its founding in 1980, more than 285,000 children in the United States have had their wishes granted by Make-A-Wish supporters.
- Every wish experience is driven by the wish kid’s interests, creativity, and personality.
- The average cash cost of a wish is $6,500.
- To qualify for a wish, a child with a critical illness must be older than 2½ years and younger than 18 (at the time of referral) and must not have received a wish from another wish-granting organization.
- A child can be referred by a parent or guardian, a health care professional, or by the child.
- Make-A-Wish has more than 33,000 active volunteers in the United States.
For wish kids, sometimes just the act of making their wish come true can be the difference between life and death: giving them the courage to comply with their medical treatments and hope to carry on. Other times, it is a way to inject joy into the life of a child during their last months, giving their families memories they will always cherish.
Our Involvement:
This year on September 29, the Plant Therapy team was a presenting sponsor at the third annual Walk for Wishes event in Twin Falls, Idaho.
In addition to our Plant Therapy team participating in the walk, we were proud to provide a fun booth in the Kid’s Zone, featuring kid-friendly activities.
As a company, we are passionate about giving back, especially to the community that has fostered our growth as a company. Last year the Make-A-Wish Foundation provided wishes for 23 children in Eastern and Central Idaho, but many remain on the waiting list. The goal for this event was to raise funds to pay for another eight wishes in the Magic Valley area.
Why We Walk for Wishes:
Our Plant Therapy founder Chris Jones has a personal interest in the Make-A-Wish foundation. At a young age, Chris’ brother was diagnosed with cancer. He was granted a wish through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, making Make-A-Wish not just align with the Plant Therapy company goal to positively impact as many lives as possible, but important to all of us at Plant Therapy.
“I am personally passionate about donating to the Make-A-Wish Foundation because it impacted my life at a young age when the organization granted my brother a wish.” Says Plant Therapy owner, Chris Jones. “Make-a-Wish sent our family to Hawaii for a week of family bonding, and it was a time with my brother that our family will never forget. Cancer is always difficult, but when cancer impacts our children, it’s even more devastating. Any way that we at Plant Therapy can help ease some of this burden on families is beneficial.”
“At Plant Therapy, we’re passionate about helping those in our community.” says Plant Therapy Vice President of Customer Experience Retha Nesmith, “Make-A-Wish is special to our family, so we’re grateful to be in a position to give back and help grant some wishes!”
Make-A-Wish Idaho has a goal of granting 95 wishes in
Idaho this year. The money raised from this event stays in our community, doing good for the people of Idaho and contributing to Plant Therapy’s commitment to giving back.
Walk for Wishes Results
This year, Walk for Wishes raised an astounding $64,210! That is more than double the amount of money raised during the first event in 2016, which raised $30,704. Plant Therapy was proud to be the presenting sponsor for such a positive community event that we hope brings joy to the lives of some amazing children!
