2023 marked a milestone 40 years of making life-changing wishes come true here at Make-A-Wish New Jersey. Take a look below at some of the exciting things that took place over the past year!

On April 29^th, the Make-A-Wish New Jersey World Wish Day Walk & Roll For Wishes was hosted at American Dream in East Rutherford, presented by the Battista Family and Gusto Grill. Over 600 supporters gathered for an inspirational celebration as we celebrated our chapter’s 40^th anniversary and 12,000 wishes granted for children with critical illnesses throughout the Garden State.

For over four decades, Make-A-Wish has granted over 550,000 wishes across the United States and around the world. April 29^th marks the global anniversary of the day that inspired the founding of Make-A-Wish globally and is known as World Wish Day.

On a sunny summer day in early July, a teenager named Judah experienced the surprise of a lifetime, during a celebration in his honor with over one hundred members of the community, including wish alumni and families, local company partners, and Make-A-Wish staff and volunteers. His one true wish? To have a brand new, Kubota BX Series 4WD Sub-Compact Tractor. Judah’s wish was granted during a patriotic celebration around Independence Day, at the Samuel & Josephine Plumeri Wishing Place, the wish-granting castle and home of Make-A-Wish New Jersey.

Judah courageously battles thalassemia, a life-threatening genetic blood disorder. He lives on a farm where his future goals include cultivating the land, feeding the animals, growing his own vegetables, and preparing his own meals from start to finish. Judah’s tractor, a specific model he chose, is a brand-new Tractor-Loader-Backhoe. The major highlight of the model is its versatility, which will be ideal for the many different projects Judah intends to use it for – a true game-changer. He also is now able to keep up with his brothers, something he has struggled with his entire life.

Judah’s wish marked a significant and historic milestone for Make-A-Wish New Jersey. Along with Make-A-Wish New Jersey celebrating its 40^th anniversary this year, this wish was the 12,000^th wish granted since the chapter’s founding in 1983. The celebration at the Wishing Place engaged an entire community in a celebration filled with games, food trucks, ice cream, and of course, the impactful mission of Make-A-Wish.

Judah’s parents Jennie and Ron shared how happy they are to see him filled with hope for the first time in his life, and that Make-A-Wish is the reason for that new-found hope. Due to Judah’s life-threatening medical condition, his mother Jennie shared that Judah does not often talk about the future or think about what is to come.

“It was the first time he’s said I’ll still be here in six months, or I’ll be here next year,” Jennie shared.

“You always want your children to have hope,” Judah’s dad Ron reflected. “We can want the best for our children, but unless they want that too – he is the one that has to put the effort into the hope, he’s the one that has to stay with it every day."

Thanks to our dear friends, the Crowley family, our brand new Wish Bus provides us with the opportunity to take our magical and whimsical castle, and our profound mission, on the road. The Wish Bus will travel to wish kids’ homes, to hospitals and medical treatment facilities, to major sporting events and concerts, to airports for celebratory travel wish sendoffs, and many more places where people gather throughout the great Garden State and beyond. The Wish Bus will support our mission to create life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses everywhere it goes and will invite the public to engage in deeper more meaningful ways with our cause. Look for the Wish Bus and be sure to “climb aboard” with our team, our board leaders, donors, volunteers and most especially, our wish kids and their families!