By DAVE FAIRCHILD

Danville Rotary

Faith Hacker spoke to Rotary Friday about the Make-A-Wish Foundation’s activities in central and eastern Kentucky. The Lexington office outreach includes Danville, Pikeville and Somerset.

“The money raised here stays here. We have about 400 kids in the state of Kentucky who are currently waiting for a wish. On average, an additional wish is received every day or two.”

Hacker began with a story about Hannah. Hannah was a freshman in high school when she started having some balance issues. She ended up with a brain tumor and was referred to Make-A-Wish near the end of her treatment. Hannah declined to Make-a-Wish.

“I don’t want to displace somebody that is sicker than me!”

Later, during her junior year in high school, Hannah embarked, with her brother, on a class trip to China.  On the flight, Hannah suffered a coma, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing. Her parents were not present, so her brother, at the age of 13, had to make life and death decisions about Hannah’s care. Her parents, with help from Sen. Mitch McConnell’s office, subsequently made the trip to China to bring Hannah home.

Her tumor had reoccurred and she faced a long (and uncertain) recovery. Knowing what lay ahead, Make-A-Wish again encouraged Hannah to make a wish. This time, Hannah agreed. The one thing their family loved to do together was watch Hawaii Five-0. So Hannah said, “I want to go to Hawaii with my family and meet the cast of Hawaii Five-0.”

Hannah later reported, “It was a time for us to kind of start over as a family. It was also an opportunity for me to give back to my family.”

Ms. Hacker chose the story of Hannah, who is now a junior at UK and sings in the chorus, to illustrate that Make-A-Wish is more than a “last wish” organization.  “Eighty percent of our kids who receive a wish actually go on to thrive and survive.”

Hacker emphasized that a “dream come true” often helps restore the patient’s hope.

Recently Anup Patel, MD, Ohio State University’s College of Medicine, partnered with Make-A-Wish to test the hypothesis that granting wishes provided children with life-threatening illnesses a clinical benefit. His results were published in the Journal of Pediatric Research in October of 2018. The study concluded, “realizing a wish can help the health of a child get better over time, impact health care utilization and reduce dollars spent on healthcare.”

Regional fundraising enables the Lexington office to fund about 150 wishes a year. So clearly there are a lot of kids that have to wait even longer, because volunteers and money to pay for the wishes must be found. Right now in Danville’s four-county service area, there are seven kids ages 3-18 waiting for a wish. The average cost to make a wish happen is about $8,000-$10,000.

Volunteers are critical because Make-A-Wish has been based in Louisville for so long there are not enough volunteers in central and eastern Kentucky. Training is really the only requirement and a training session is scheduled for March. Volunteers must be 18 years of age and must work on their own time. 

There are lots of ways to get involved. “Whatever you do it’s impactful with Make-A-Wish and that’s our story.”

Asked about collaboration with other wish granting organizations, Hacker stated that each organization shares their requests and only one grants the wish. 

Asked about eligibility requirements and who can make a referral, the response was “To be eligible a child must be 3-18 years old and have critical illness.  Anyone can make a referral.”

Asked who makes the final decision?  “if it is determined they medically qualified, they will receive their wish, but they may have to wait for resources to become available.”

The last question concerned the financial sustainability if the waiting list is currently over 400 and growing by about one new request per day, and current funding averages limit granting to 150 wishes per year.

Hacker responded, “that’s why I’m talking to organizations like Rotary, seeking help for this very worthy cause.”