Amelia's Wish Inspires the World

This selfless act came as no surprise to Amelia’s parents - given her love for the outdoors, parks and the Earth. After treatments, Amelia and her grandmother would take walks in the park and pick up trash. This simple, yet selfless act allowed her to take her mind off of the treatments that she faced due to her brain tumor. This also was the spark that ignited her imagination when it came time to determine her one-true wish.  

On February 27, 2016, thousands of people from around the globe came together to turn Amelia's heartfelt wish into a reality. 

Amelia's wish day began around 8:30AM when she arrived at her first of four neighborhood parks, Romey Hills Park, to begin her heroic mission to "take care of the world". Amelia, along with nearly 100 friends, family and volunteers, collected a dozen trash bags filled to the brim before heading to two more parks - New Mark Subdivision and Macken Park. At Macken Park, Amelia was presented with an honor bench that will forever showcase her heroic nature.  

Next, Amelia traveled to another park - Swope Park, to an entrance fit for royalty. Hundreds of volunteers lined the street along with police cars and fire trucks to welcome her. After picking up trash with her friends at Swope Park, Amelia's wish concluded with a presentation full of special guests and dignitaries. The Director of Kansas City Parks and Recreation welcomed everyone and extended a thank you to Amelia for inspiring so many to clean up their community. Beryl Raff, CEO of Helzberg Diamonds, presented her, her mom and grandmothers with special matching necklaces to always remember this day. Mayor Sly James proclaimed February 27th as "Amelia's take care of the world day" in Kansas City and the Mayor of St. Joseph, MO also thanked Amelia for inspiring his community to make a difference. The day concluded with a heartfelt thank you from Amelia's family and a KCTV 5 Surprise Squad cupcake truck!  

Make-A-Wish Missouri & Kansas also organized numerous other park cleanups around the state in St. Louis, Springfield and Cape Girardeau, engaging nearly 500 additional volunteers in Amelia's efforts outside of her Kansas City community. Other cleanups were also organized by wish granters, Amelia's friends and family and complete strangers around the globe that were touched by Amelia's incredible story.  

Thousands of tweets using #ameliaswish flooded in from around the world on February 27th and it continues to grow as more and more people learn about Amelia's inspiring story! Let's keep it going! Next time you see a piece of trash, or an opportunity to make the world a little better, take a photo and tag it using #ameliaswish.   

Make-A-Wish Missouri & Kansas wants to thank everyone that helped make Amelia's wish incredible!