(lively music) (lively music) - Since 1985, Make-A-Wish Illinois has granted more than 19,000 wishes to children in all 102 counties across the state.

This month, Make-A-Wish is celebrating 40 years of granting wishes.

And we're gonna learn more about what the organization does for our communities.

Janet Bantz Glavin is the Senior Community Engagement Manager of Make-A-Wish Illinois.

And Ashley Heeren is a Make-A-Wish volunteer and Wish alumni parent.

Thanks you both for being here.

- Thank you - Thank you.

- This is great.

First of all, Janet, tell us a little bit more about Make-A-Wish and how this whole thing came about.

- Sure, well Make-A-Wish, we have one thing that we do and we grant life-changing wishes to children with critical illness.

So we've been doing that in Illinois since 1985 and nationally since 1980 and Make-A-Wish started, there was a little boy who actually has his origins from Kewanee, Illinois, but he was living in Phoenix, Arizona.

His name was Chris Greicius, and he had leukemia.

He was seven years old and he was a big fan of the show, "Chips," the California Highway Patrol at the time.

And so he was struggling with his illness and some people in the community came together along with his mother and they made him an official state trooper for the day.

And they saw how that lifted his spirits and his mother and the others that were involved in that day for Chris, they went on to found Make-A-Wish.

And from that time we've grown and grown and we're now a worldwide organization.

And in Illinois alone, we've granted more than 19,000 wishes.

- Yeah, that's amazing.

And something as fairly simple as granting his wish to be a highway patrolman I'm sure that did make a lot of difference, but I know that a lot of the wishes you do are a lot more intensive and have a lot of planning.

Ashley, you're a Make-A-Wish volunteer.

- Yes, yes.

- And alumni parent.

Can you tell us about your story with Make-A-Wish?

- So my daughter received a wish to Disney.

She wanted to have lunch with the Princesses in 2011.

She was three years old at the time.

And for an entire week she got to be a child, not worried about the hospitalizations, not worried about, you know, needle pokes.

And we were able to enjoy life and get away.

And that's really important, especially when facing chronic illness.

Just stepping away for that moment.

And since then I have been involved in Make-A-Wish.

I was at the very first I Spy that was held.

And then since then I have become a wish granter and I'm a part of the Make-A-Wish advisory board for Peoria.

- Now, when your family went to Disney, what kind of effect do you think that had on your daughter?

How did you see her demeanor change?

Or did were her spirits lifted?

- Oh, definitely she was happy.

And you know, granted she, we still had to do like some breathing treatments while we were down there, but, you know, she didn't have to focus on, oh, I got to get up at this time and do this and that.

She was really happy.

And you know, the bigger part of this too, we were a military family, so we had just finished a deployment and this was the first vacation we'd ever had.

- Wow, that's amazing.

- So.

- Now, one thing that I know you want people to know, and something I just learned is that Make-A-Wish isn't just for terminally ill children.

I know the medical issues your daughter had, you know, it's not like it was life-threatening in any immediate way, but tell us a little bit more about what some of the kids are dealing with and how you help them out.

- Yeah, and I, I'm glad that you mentioned that 'cause that has been sometimes a common misconception.

And so the criteria for being referred to Make-A-Wish is that a child is between the ages of two and a half and has not yet reached their 18th birthday and that they've been diagnosed with a critical illness.

That's something that is progressive, degenerative, or has placed their life in jeopardy at the time of referral.

So we have a number of illnesses that are eligible under that criteria.

And over the many years that we've been involved, sometimes the criteria is reviewed and changed largely in part thanks to due to the progress in medicine.

So that's the criteria.

And so when we work with our referral professionals, many at Children's Hospital, OSF Healthcare at Children's Hospital of Illinois here or around the state, they are partners in that process in talking with families before they make a referral.

So the family understands that it's not just for terminally ill children.

- So is that how the process works?

The healthcare provider will do a referral.

So people don't necessarily call you up?

They have to go through the health provider?

- Both.

- Okay.

- The answer is both.

So people go to, viewers go to our website at wish.org, they'll see how to refer a child and sometimes we have family members that do make a referral and they need to have detailed information about their child's diagnosis, including their specialty provider that will verify their diagnosis at the time of referral.

And sometimes that's empowering for a family that might be feeling like they've had a lot of loss of control with the diagnosis.

- Sure.

- Other times they have a lot going on and we work with our referral partners.

They're key in kind of looking at timing of referral too that might be appropriate for a family or a child.

- Okay, so Ashley, I want to ask you, what made you want to become a volunteer after your experience?

- To give back to an organization that gave so much for us for a week.

And that's important.

I wanted to give that same joy back to other families.

- And how many wishes have you been a part of?

- We were just talking about this yesterday, Janet and I, about 25, and we're about to do another wish celebration on Sunday.

- That's great, I wanna talk about those specifically in just a little bit.

But first of all, what are some of the, just to get this outta the way, what are some of the guidelines that families face when they wanna wish and things like that?

- Yeah, that, so really to capture that impact that we're looking to make, that we're not just a nice-to-have experience, that we're going to make a lasting impact for a family and a child.

We're looking to capture the child's imagination.

And so people will ask, yes, we do have guidelines, we have budgetary guidelines, we have other parameters on safety, some types of wishes if a child would ask for the physician would need to say that's appropriate and safe for that child, or they're safe to travel if they choose a travel wish, or maybe they need to wait until after they finish this particular piece of their medical treatment.

But we're really looking to capture that child's imagination.

So people ask me, you know, what if you have a child that wishes for a million dollars?

So, you know, our training would be to ask, you know, well if you had a million dollars, what would you do?

And usually with a child they would say, you know, well, I would get this particular toy or this electronic and you know, maybe I'll get something for my brother or sister.

And we would kind of then maybe that would become a shopping spree.

Or a child, there's so many creative wishes.

A child says, you know, I wanna go to the moon or I wanna meet an alien that we've had, we had a wish where a really creative members of the community and our volunteers like Ashley, they would found an air hanger.

They created a pretend rocket, a virtual reality experience where this child came in with suited up as an astronaut and went in and had the VR experience as if he was taking off.

And he met and a space alien on Mars.

So the creativity and that capturing that imagination and the age appropriateness of for the child.

Some our children that are older, they might have, you know, some more specific things like to be an author or to, you know, meet a celebrity.

So we're really looking at capturing that imagination.

- I saw, speaking of imaginations, I saw on your website, video of one girl who I think she wanted to ride a unicorn.

- Yes.

- Meet a unicorn and you guys made that happen.

- Yeah.

- So you really do make.

- Sometimes very simple.

- Yeah, yeah, what are, I mean I'm sure kids have extravagant wishes, but I'm sure there's some simple ones too.

What are some of the more simple ones that were pretty easy for you to grant.

- Shopping sprees.

We had a lot of the shopping sprees during COVID.

COVID really changed how we engaged with the families.

We had to really be creative and shopping sprays were kind of the, I thought they were fun, but they were pretty simple.

- Sure, sure.

- At the same time.

- Yeah.

- Now how does it work as far as your funding?

- We are completely funded by donors, companies, individual giving, community events.

Ashley and some other of our volunteers in the area were just part of a Walk for Wishes event that we have where people sign up and they have teams.

So we're completely supported independently.

We don't receive any federal or government funding.

- Okay, when it comes to certain things like say a shopping spree, do you get in kind donations from different businesses and companies?

- We do, that's really some of the magic, we call it the Make-A-Wish magic in granting wishes is that there are these little ripple effects.

We might go to a store and say, well, you know, we have a budget for this, but anything else you can do.

And we had, we had a wish parent who works at a retail chain recently that came to us and said, you know, when you're doing an electronics wish or a shopping spree wish in this store, give us a call and we'll literally we'll roll out the red carpet, we'll do a cake.

And just those little ripple effects.

And you've had some things like that happen.

- Yeah, a wish that I can recall that was actually at our local mall.

He just wanted the Jordans.

They gifted him the Jordans for him and then he wanted some for his dad and he got those too.

Plus they gave him a certain amount in gift cards that he was able to shop.

He did a lot of shopping for, you know, his siblings, but for himself too.

We also had GameStop give him a, it was PlayStation 5.

And so that was really cool.

- That's neat.

I wanna ask both of you this question, what makes a good Make-A-Wish volunteer?

Because I would imagine that, you know, people volunteer for a lot of things, but in this instance you may deal be dealing with something, a very emotional topic.

So how do you prepare yourself and what makes a good volunteer?

- Meeting the family where they're at, realizing that they're at this critical time in their life, they could be in a crisis, especially with those rush wishes.

And I always put myself in their shoes.

You know, how would I want somebody to treat me and my child in that moment?

- Janet, do you have anything to add?

- Well I would say, to add to what Ashley mentioned is that flexibility to know that what immediate family looks like is different for everyone.

And understanding, you know, where they're at.

And again, the focus on the child also really helps that they know that we are there to focus on the child to make an impact for that child and their family.

And I think creativity, our volunteers are, they have a creativity that is just inspiring, but you know, that commitment.

- Sure.

- Yeah.

- Just a personal story.

When my daughter was diagnosed with cancer in 2020, Make-A-Wish was fantastic.

Just fantastic.

And then we were kind of in a rushed situation because we knew she didn't have long, and unfortunately it was during COVID, so we couldn't do the Disney trip, but we did a lot.

Corey and Jody are, are Make-A-Wish granters over in McLean County did awesome.

We went to, they loved, the kids loved princesses.

So we went to the Vrooman Mansion and had a sleepover and had a horse-drawn carriage and the kids all dressed up as princesses and princesses showed up, real princesses.

But one of the things I was really impressed with with granting the wish was not just how they took care of Emma, but her twin sister.

You know, they made sure that she was a part of everything.

And I guess, you know, when you're granting a wish, having the whole family involved is important.

- Yeah, it definitely is, and I can speak on that.

I have my oldest daughter and when we went down to, you know, Disney, they treated her, you know, with kindness.

She got pretty much the same thing as my daughter too.

And they really made her a part of the wish if they dropped off a gift for my youngest, they dropped off a gift for her and that was really cool to really have her be a part of that as well.

- Yeah, we also, our, like I said, our wish granters were great.

We also got a trip to Chicago, went on a shopping spree at American Girl Store and got some behind the scenes looks at Sears Tower and the aquarium and everything.

And you know, my daughter and her sisters, it was great because for a while they forgot about everything.

And I guess, you know, that's kind of the whole point of this is for the kids to forget that they're sick and just enjoy life.

- Yeah, we're really looking at it.

It can be a dark and difficult time, really the unknown and just that innocence and joy of childhood that is impacted by that diagnosis.

And it can be, it's traumatic and we're looking at making that impact so that it, it's, you know, it for you and your family that there are some really good memories also that carry on.

- Absolutely, well I wanna talk about some fun stuff.

I wanna hear about some of the wishes that you guys have granted.

Ashley, out of your, you know, 25, 26 that you've done, what really stands out to you as far as a really cool wish?

- There's three that really stand out to me.

Brigham Landwehr's Wish, the camping trip or not the camping trip, the camper.

And so we reached out to one person, we're like, oh, it'd be really cool if, you know he had a cop car.

You know, no, there was probably, I don't know, 60, 70 cop cars really supportive with the family and we had this really big gathering and just to see the support for the family was so cool.

I was involved in Tessa Sutton's wish as well and we met out at a restaurant in Dunlap and really gathered, 'cause that was, it became a rush wish and so we, you know, understood what we needed to do and you know, we made it happen.

And just seeing the support with Tessa, it was great.

Another one I thought it was really unique was a horse barrel racing arena for Ava Lightsey and did know what it was gonna entail, but it was actually at her house and she actually invited my daughter to come back about a week or two later and ride horses with her.

So I thought those were some really cool ones we've done.

- Yeah, what about you Janet?

What stands out to you?

- Yeah, well I think one of my most creative wishes that happened a little before the pandemic and that our chapter has granted was a little girl named Azka.

At the time she was little and now she's much older, but she liked to write creative stories.

She was just five at the time and her wish was to have as many people hear her stories as possible.

So we worked with local public radio station and they added sound effects to her reading her story called the "Stealer of the Diamonds."

And then that was broadcast out and you could go online and find it and listen to it.

And she continued after the, so this is the continuation of the impact of the wish.

She continued to record her stories and then during the pandemic she made a little podcast about, you know, helping people like lift them up during, you know, don't worry during the pandemic.

And so, you know, just the radius of the impact of her wish, not only for her herself, but to bring joy into other people's lives.

And we've had wishes to give too, where someone wished to work at a soup kitchen and work with a chef to make a soup and then that soup recipe was shared and you know, just things that come from the heart and the imagination that make such a powerful impact.

But locally, one of my favorite wishes I have, well there there are two I have met, every wish then people ask like, what's your favorite wish?

But it's kind of like the next wish and the next wish.

But a little girl with a seizure disorder, she wanted a safe place to play in her backyard because she really didn't feel safe going to a playground.

Other things, so she liked Barbie.

So we had a Barbie themed playhouse that some local contractors built and the trades were involved and it was a learning experience for them, but her playhouse wish.

And then we had volunteers planting flowers and that's one of my favorites.

There are so many.

- Yeah, I'm sure.

- Yeah.

- Does it surprise you when, you know, if I were a kid I would say, yeah, I want to go to the moon or I want a million bucks, but is it, does it surprise you when kids just want what seems like a very basic wish?

- You know, one little girl just actually got back from a wish to Hawaii and she's like, I want a narwhal.

And then I was like, oh, okay.

But you know, we talked, when we talked to her a little bit more, she was like, I really wanna go to Hawaii.

And I'm like, okay.

And you know, for her that was simple.

She loved to swim and she showed us her swimming pool and you know, she's like, I just wanna do that.

I just wanna swim.

- Yeah.

- I'm like, okay.

- You mentioned the pandemic.

Did that really put a crimp in a lot of plans for the kids?

- It did, it did.

And you know, it put an impact for kids in treatment with their critical illness too.

It was a difficult time.

So we call our process of granting of the wish journey, we look at kind of a pipeline for an average time.

Right now we're really looking at six to 12 months depending on what a child has wished for and also their medical condition to get them from the discovery of their wish, which is part of that journey to the actual completion of the wish.

And during COVID travel stopped.

And so when travel resumed, for example, Disney is a very popular wish or the Florida theme parks, you can't just suddenly send every person there.

Plus you have the public waiting.

And so we had to really time that out.

And some children, we would check in with them periodically and say, do you wanna keep waiting for this travel particular wish or would you like to pivot to something else?

And so as Ashley mentioned, maybe they decided on a playhouse or a shopping spree wish or something local that they could have.

Some kids chose to wait.

So that really took, as long as we were in the pandemic and the impacts, it took a while to get out and that was true, you know, not only in Illinois but nationally and worldwide.

- I'm sure, so Disney, Florida theme parks, is that the most popular wish?

- It seems like, yeah.

- Yeah it is.

Wishes to go to Hawaii, wishes to travel to a beach someplace, celebrity wishes, sports related wishes.

We had a boy from the Bloomington area who wanted to go to a Cubs Cardinals game.

He was a big Cardinals fan in St.

Louis and, you know, meet the players and that was able to happen and you know, wishes are just, there's just a big variety of wishes.

- Sure, speaking of celebrities, any celebrity encounters that you remember off the top of your head?

- It wasn't really really an encounter.

So we had a kiddo who was waiting for a wish.

Unfortunately he had passed before we can, you know, his wish could be granted.

He, it was some sports team that he just wanted a signed jersey.

If we, he couldn't get his wish, so we made it happen to where we reached out to the sports team and while he was in the hospital he was given the gift of his jersey and then we were gonna just use this as like a kinda wish of a wish boost, but for him that jersey was everything.

- Sure, do you find most companies, people, organizations are pretty willing to work with you or are there some that not, I'm not asking for names, but if there's something you really have to bug them about it and say, hey, let's try and get this done.

- I think there's two things that usually kind of springboard a company's engagement with us.

You know, Make-A-Wish is known, but sometimes when you have a coworker or a colleague that has had a direct impact, sometimes we'll have companies get involved because of that.

They saw what that did for the family.

Other companies are looking for ways that employees can get engaged and it kind of is rapport building within the company.

Companies will come to us in that way.

And then I think sometimes volunteers too, if we have a volunteer and they say, you know, I'm having really enjoying this and they wanna get involved, so.

- Yeah, do you have a lot of people like Ashley, who were involved in a wish and then decided, hey, I want to pay it forward and give back?

- We do, wish alumni families are some of the best volunteers.

They really understand what's happening.

- Yeah.

- And it all depends on the timing.

Sometimes our families, you know, they have a lot of acute care time.

Ashley, I don't, I, she does so many things and still has a lot going on, so it's very inspiring.

So I would say, you know, that that's a really great volunteer too, retirees.

- Oh sure, yeah.

I'm sure as someone who was a wish alumni parent that you had a maybe a little better understanding of how the whole process works and how families would react in that situation.

- Yeah, and that's why I always agree, you know, when I meet them, you know, I just kinda think back to what I was going through, what I, you know, emotionally during that timeframe.

And it's a lot of emotion, motivational interviewing with the parent and the kiddo and I really come, you know, with that heart of understanding.

Even though it might be like a different illness but the emotions can be very raw.

- Yeah, we gotta wrap this up, but you did mention in earlier that not everyone knows about Make-A-Wish.

Is that kind of surprising to you considering the organization's been around so long?

- I think they know about Make-A-Wish, but they maybe don't know how they can get involved in their community.

And so we talk about wish makers, which everything that we've talked about today from companies getting involved to volunteers like Ashley that do the wish celebrations or even the wish discovery.

So many different ways to get involved.

You know, we had a local business that's just finishing up building a tree house for a boy that we do need more people to be involved in the viewing area.

We need at least 15 more wish celebration volunteers in specific.

- How can people find out more about Make-A-Wish Illinois?

- They can go to wish.org/illinois and there's information on how to get involved.

There's a self-starting program for becoming a volunteer that they can get into.

- All right, Janet Bantz Glavin and Ashley Heeren with Make-A-Wish, thanks for all you do and thanks for coming on tonight.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Appreciate it.

And thank you for watching.

You can watch this segment again and share it at wtvp.org and check us out anytime on Facebook and Instagram.

Have a good night.

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