Volunteer Spotlight: Dana B.
What ways are you involved as a volunteer?
I am a wish granter and I do a lot of wish discoveries.
How did you first find Make-A-Wish?
About 12 or 13 years ago, when I was a nursing instructor at North Hennepin Community College, I asked my new class of students to share with everyone the most amazing thing they’ve ever done. One of my students told us that she met Harry Potter. What? How could that be? I asked her to give us additional information. She stated that her son received a wish from Make-A-Wish due to his having cancer. She talked about just how amazing Make-A-Wish was—from how they made magic in her son’s life to how they gave the entire family the opportunity to just be a family. I rolled that information around in my head for awhile and in 2011 I became a wish granter.
What has been the most rewarding aspect of volunteering with Make-A-Wish?
It is hard to pick just one…and I don’t think I can. I have loved getting to know each wish child and their families. There is nothing like the feeling I get when a child’s face lights up when they find out they are getting their wish or during a wish reveal. The next best thing is when I see a parent’s face when they are watching their child get their one true wish. For that one moment those parents are experiencing joy and are watching their child experience joy, when they may have had to watch their child experience so much pain in the past.
What advice would you give to new volunteers?
Enjoy the process—from the initial meeting with the child to wish boosts to the granting of the wish. Enjoy knowing that you are making wishes come true. How many people can say that they actually make wishes come true?
What story would you share to inspire others to become a volunteer with Make-A-Wish?
I truly believe in the power of a wish. Quite a few years ago, my wish granting partners and I were working on a wish for a little boy who had a brain tumor. He had a particularly aggressive tumor and it looked like he wouldn’t make it to his wish to go to the Walt Disney World® Resort. I really thought he wouldn’t leave the hospital unless he went home for hospice care, but he became stable. His doctor approved him for his wish as ‘it will give the family some positive memories once he is gone’. He was off to Walt Disney World® and he was very ill while there, but something happened while he was in Florida. Call it a coincidence, or maybe the chemo just started working, or maybe it was the power of his wish… as he is still alive and in remission for the last eight years. I prefer to believe it was the power of his wish.