I had a wish granted by the Make-A-Wish Foundation in January of 2005 at 18 years old. My wish was to meet Ashton Kutcher. My family was flown to Los Angeles, California and housed in a very nice hotel. The day I met Ashton, we were picked up in a limousine and taken to FOX studios on the set of That 70s Show. I got to interview Ashton for Teen People magazine and my article (including my picture!) was in the April 2005 issue of the magazine. It was an amazing experience that my family will never forget.
Last semester, I did an unpaid internship with the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Georgia and Alabama. It was a wonderful experience. From the education that I gained working at the Foundation, there are several recommendations that I would make. For some children, the life expectancy isn't so high, and those are typically the children that are just beginning school and have never been to DisneyWorld, watch Disney stuff, etc. However, as evidenced in the article posted in the start of this topic, the longer you wait, the more practical you are in your choice. Since CF is a disease that is somewhat easy to monitor, patients can keep track of their health statuses. With this in mind, I would recommend waiting until the CFer is a teenager unless the patient's individual health situation does not permit waiting.
When you consider Riley's wish and my wish, you realize that these are things that money can't buy. Riley would not be able to go to Ranger school because he had CF, so this was an experience that only a foundation like Make-A-Wish could create. No matter how much money I had, I couldn't simply buy my way into Ashton's room and into a magazine. I think that Make-A-Wish is a great organization that turns a "disease" into something that yields a privilege. For once, having CF became something that made me ABLE instead of disabled.
Thank you for the post because (after CFF of course!) Make-A-Wish is an organization that I strongly support!
