Des Moines, Iowa–Thursday, March 12, 2020, Make-A-Wish®Iowa is working with Make-A-Wish®America to ensure the safety of our wish families, community supporters, volunteers and employees by monitoring guidance from national and international public health organizations. Make-A-Wish Iowa will be reaching out directly to families whose travel wishes are being impacted and will need to be rescheduled. Volunteers have been asked to be mindful of their contact with wish families and will be performing virtual interactions at this time instead of face to face visits.

In addition, Make-A-Wish America has made the difficult decision to postpone all events that involve wish kids attendance at large gatherings. As a result, the Make-A-Wish Iowa Corridor Gala, scheduled for March 27, 2020,in Cedar Rapids has been transitioned to a virtual event. While being committed to our vision of granting the wish of every eligible child fighting a critical illness, our organization is asking for the public’s help.

In this area alone, 20 wishes are currently waiting to be granted in the Make-A-Wish Iowa eligibility pipeline.As of this weekend, 8 wishes have been postponed until further notice. This is the same amount of wishes the Corridor Gala was able to support in 2019, totaling $104,800.Make-A-Wish Iowa has created an online three-day fundraising campaign to fund our postponed wishes. Together, we transform lives one wish at a time.

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About Make-A-Wish Iowa: Make-A-Wish®Iowa creates life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses. We seek to bring every eligible child's wish to life because a wish is an integral part of a child's treatment journey. Research shows children who have wishes granted can build the physical and emotional strength they need to fight their illness. Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, Make-A-Wish is the world’s leading children’s wish-granting organization, serving children in every community in the United States and more than 50 countries worldwide. Together, generous donors, supporters, staff and more than 34,000 volunteers across the U.S., grant a wish every 33 minutes, on average, somewhere in the country. Since 1980, Make-A-Wish has granted more than 330,000 wishes to children in the U.S. and its territories; more than 15,800 in 2019 alone. For more information about Make-A-Wish Iowa, visit iowa.wish.org.