Whatever happened to that kid who wished to go on a bear hunt in Alaska? I remember it caused a big controversy and a bunch of animal-rights people got their backs up about it…
Did he get his wish? And how is he doing these days?
Also, while we’re on the subject of Make-a-Wish: do they have some sort of parameters or limitations? For example, what if little Rasta Jr. wanted to sail around the world on a luxury yacht?
I just read a column about this…
The young man got his bear hunt, but did not get a bear. However, he was able to return a second time and he was successful. (I think the controversy he generated freed up substantial donations from supporters, that’s how he got a second “wish”.)
The young man has since died, and the Make A Wish Foundation has changed their policy to exclude any hunting expeditions as possible wishes. The point of the column was the sacrifice of children’s wishes to political correctness.
There previous policy only limited wishes to legal activities. If the money was available (a big “if”) a wish for a luxury world tour was not out of the question, apparently.
I’ll see if I can find the column to give you a reference.
As I understand it, the requests are made and the foundation tries to make them happen. So, they’d try to raise the money or find a person willing to volunteer what is needed. I suppose the foundation is not able to fulfill all wishes.
Yeah, I heard about that change of policy on a talk show. That’s what prompted the OP.
Thanks.
Not to be in bad taste, but if I was a dying kid, there would be just one wish on my mind. It involves the letters ‘S’ and ‘E’, and maybe even an ‘X’ in there somewhere. I guess there’s no way the foundation could pull that one off, but isn’t it kind of a bummer to die without ever trying it?
that posts what all the wishes are that kids have made and that are currently outstanding (is that on the Make-a-Wish site? I haven’t looked yet). This is the ONLY charity my wife and I donate to because we think it’s pretty damn cool.
Actually my wife has quasi-personally been involved in a few because the hospital where she works had two kids dying of cystic fibrosis that had fairly simple wishes. One wanted to meet Adam Sandler (and got taken to L.A. to do it). The other wanted to watch an episode of the X-Files being filmed and they flew the kid to whatever part of Canada where that is done. (or used to be done…as I understand they now film in L.A.)
http://www.makeawish.org has a list of current wishes. Some of them are pretty lame, if you ask me.
So what’s the deal with every dying kid wanting to go to Hawaii? (well, o.k., one wants to go to the Caribbean). Is it because to get your wish answered, you have to be ‘reasonable’?
I noticed they only offer a small list of past wishes that were granted, and like you, I agree most of these were pretty lame. I question if it’s because they want the potential new wish-makers to see them and say “Gee, I was going to ask to tour the world with Britney Spears…but maybe I’ll reconsider…”
Personally, I think they should publish ALL the outstanding wishes of all the kids. Then maybe some star would see his/ her name on there and that many MORE kids would get their wishes met. Besides, based on how lame some of these wishes are, I would think businesses might want to sponsor some of the wishes to get themselves some good press. I mean, I bet there are a whole bunch of 5-6 year olds who would LOVE to use a wrecking ball on a building and hang out at a construction site all day driving a forklift, etc. That said, a whole lot of construction companies are missing out on their opportunity here.