Make-A-Wish^® Southern Nevada

Business can be a funny thing, especially when you’re in the business of providing hope for families whose children have a critical illness. One of the funny things is that our fiscal year starts in September every year and ends on August 31st. No January, new year, new opportunities…well, there’s some of that in January but here at Make-A-Wish Southern Nevada that happens in September each year for us. 

I always tell my team that September 1st is the worst day of the year for me. Why? Because I look at how many wishes we’ve granted since the start of the fiscal year and it’s always 0. Next, I look at how much money we’ve raised in this fiscal year to grant wishes and it’s always $0. And yet when I look at our “pipeline” (the number of kiddos currently waiting for wishes) it’s always 200+. As CEO, the first two numbers leave me with some sweaty palms, but the third one is what drives my passion and strength to keep fighting for every eligible child here in Southern Nevada. 

August is always a month of reflection for me. (It’s also my dad’s 88th birthday this August.) I look back at all the wishes my team was able to accomplish with the help of our community and I’m always humbled. Could it have been last September 2023, the start of our fiscal year, we granted Kai’s half-pipe wish with the help of our friends at Dutch Bros?

How many kids went to a Disney resort to either meet princesses, be one or choose to create their own light saber? While we do a lot of Disney wishes, each one is as unique as the child wishing for this type of wish. I love hearing their stories before and after their wish adventures. We also granted a few horse wishes this fiscal year, shopping sprees, backyard makeovers and so much more. I’m thrilled that these children and families put their hope in the hands of our incredible team here. You may not realize how many hours our coordinators (or as I call them, our VIP Hosts – as we’re in Vegas) spend on the phone with families, travel destinations, vendors to help enhance a wish and oh, so much more daily. As you walk through The Wishing Place (and I hope you do) you can hear reservations being made, a call with subcontractors to get a bathroom makeover across the finish line and almost anything you can think of to grant a wish. The other thing you hear is laughter. We get a little giddy around here when we know we’re going to knock another kid’s expectations out of the park, going above what they thought possible for their wish.  

Along with our regular daily job of granting wishes, this year we had some unique experiences at our chapter. We had a local kiddo attend the inaugural F1 race here in Vegas and we also had kids from around the country, twenty in all, here for Super Bowl. That’s the most Wish Kids at one Super Bowl for Make-A-Wish as an organization and again, our team and community stepped up. Whether it was scheduling activities for their day off, our Medical Advisory Committee being on call at each event, to ensure every child’s safety or our volunteers who worked along with our team, our national team, team NFL and our newest national partner Fanatics, it was a week none of us will forget. While we average about forty “wish assists” annually (this is the term when a wish kiddo comes from another state or country to have their wish granted in Southern Nevada) we’ll top out this year at almost 80 of these wishes. None of which get counted in our granted wishes totals, we’re simply helping other chapters get their wish kiddo’s wish here in Vegas granted.  

So, as we head out of this fiscal and into a new one, I look around at our team, our Board, our Volunteers, our incredible community-minded partners and I know, we’re going to hit our record-breaking (second year in a row) goal of 185 wishes for this fiscal year. I’m proud and humbled. 

And if by chance, you’ve wondered how great it feels to grant a wish, now is the time for you to visit Volunteer - Make-A-Wish® Southern Nevada to fill out your volunteer application and sign up for our next Volunteer Orientation. Let’s start September as our vision statement reads, Together, we create life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses. Join us and change a child’s life and your own.