WISHES

About 20 years ago, Make-A-Wish Colorado started partnering with local schools for Wish Week fundraisers. Mazak said it’s been a winwin situation, as it helps instill philanthropy in the students and raises money for their sick peers. Plus, she always loves seeing schools’ creative fundraising methods, like shaving teachers’ heads or taping their principals to the wall.

While nancial contributions are needed, so are volunteers.

Aboussie described how meeting Make-A-Wish children and their families “touches your mind and heart.” So, he works to help however he can — whether that’s serving on the board of directors or speaking at events.

“(Volunteering) shows you how much more there is to do,” he said. “… We can’t stop the problems, but we can ease the e orts and give the child something to dream about when they’re going through the possibly the most di cult time of their life.”

Both Aboussie and Mazak stressed how much these children and their families need “a sense that there will be a better tomorrow,” as Aboussie described it. ey said these children also need to feel normal after feeling di erent during their formative years.

Hope and normalcy

Castle Rock’s Jack Rodell, 8, might be a little shy, except when it comes to talking about the best day of his life.

On Nov. 14, Jack was the guest of honor at a Colorado Avalanche game. He described the entire day in detail, saying he met the players, got his own jersey and more. Jack, who wants to be a professional hockey player when he grows up, was diagnosed with leukemia but has been in remission for two years. His wish was delayed because of COVID-19.

Over the past few years, he’s represented Make-A-Wish Colorado at fundraising events, and he and his family are now becoming wish ambassadors, like the Bontragers.

“When your kid is diagnosed with cancer, and you just live appointment to appointment, it’s very lonely,” his mom Krystalyn said. “… In his head, he just feels di erent. … It’s nice to see other people celebrate him, and it’s something he’ll remember for the rest of his life.” at’s something Denver’s Austen Swinton can con rm. e two reunited last year when Swinton spoke at World Wish Day in California where Lovato was being honored for helping Make-AWish.

Swinton, who’s graduating from the University of Colorado-Boulder this spring, was diagnosed with end-stage renal failure as a child and eventually received a kidney transplant. For her wish, she met singer and actress Demi Lovato at a July 2009 concert.

After the two met backstage, Lovato pulled Swinton on stage and asked her to sing “ is Is Me” for the crowd. Swinton said she didn’t have stage fright at all, and Lovato sang with her.

Swinton, now 23, said her experiences with Make-A-Wish helped brighten her life when she needed it most.

“Looking back at how much I was going through at that age — I was only 10 or 11 when I was on dialysis — I was missing out on some of those peak childhood moments,” she continued. “ … Everyone says how much a wish impacts a child. You don’t truly know until you’re living that experience.”

Having a wish granted is the best day in a child’s life, Jack described, and now he’s hoping he can help other children as an ambassador, paying forward all the kindness he received.

“People really helped me, and I want to help other people so they feel the same way,” Jack said. “I felt special. I felt really happy. … I want other kids to feel happy.”

Targeting solution

EVERGREEN – Suspecting a case of mistaken identity, a young woman contacted JCSO regarding a malicious key attack on her car. She’d gone to the home where she’s employed as a nanny and parked her vehicle in front of the middle of three garage doors. Later that evening she heard odd noises outside, but chalked them up to restive wildlife. On arriving back at her own residence near midnight, her husband immediately called her attention to a long scratch marring the vessel’s starboard beam. e o cer noted that the damage ran from the middle of the right-front fender, across both front and rear passenger doors, ending at a point 8 inches aft of the gas tank. No paint-dusted key was in evidence, and the woman didn’t recall seeing any suspicious persons skulking about the neighborhood looking for a locked door. She did, however, envision a theory of the crime. She’d only recently begun driving that car, she explained, and the perpetrator –perhaps unaware that it belonged to her – had really meant to confound somebody else entirely. It’s an astute hypothesis that, so far, has produced no leads.

Disrespecting boundaries

EVERGREEN – e early-rising resident stood at the edge of his property contemplating the retaining wall he planned to move four feet to the east. He was shortly joined by his neighbor, who possessed a fundamentally di erent interpretation of their respective property lines. What happened next depends on who you ask. According to Early, his neighbor started poking him in the chest and shoving him with both hands. e way Neighbor remembers it, Early began “chest-butting” him, which made him “feel like kicking his (assignation).” Just in the nick of time, Early’s pregnant wife physically inserted herself between the quarrelsome pair, authorities were summoned, and peace returned to the valley. Imbued with the spirit of détente, Early decided not to press charges. His heart a ame with empathy and good will toward all men, Neighbor said he just wanted to “get on with my life” and promised to “keep to myself.” Moved by such strong currents of universal brotherhood, the deputy closed the case.

Bedrock Confidential

CONIFER – ‘Twas long after midnight when Bam Bam called JCSO to report that his sweetheart of four years, Pebbles, had totally lost her marbles. It seems Pebbles had received an anonymous textmessage alleging that Bam Bam had been sharing his a ections with another of Bedrock’s alabaster-skinned beauties, and suggesting she view the rock-solid evidence displayed on Facebook. Sure enough, there upon the accusing screen was a picture of Bam Bam and a certain Fiona Feldspar looking too comfortable together by half. Now hotter than lava, Pebbles demanded an explanation, and when Bam Bam tried to throw gurative sand in her eyes she erupted completely, hurling a “tub of butter” at him, smashing a safety gate against the wall, and coming down like a landslide on his laptop computer. After deputies observed the big crater in the wall next to the shattered gate, the computer battery soaking in the kitchen sink and the creamy bread-spread dappling Bam Bam’s animal-hide toga, Pebbles was stone-cold busted for third-degree assault.

TKO

CONIFER – In a splendid example of good timing, two deputies walked into the crowded saloon just in time to see two young bucks – let’s call them Steamroller and Sledgehammer – going all UFC on each other smack in the middle of everybody else’s good time. Recognizing that as inappropriate behavior in mixed company, the o cers parted the impetuous pugilists and insisted they return to their separate corners for post-bout examination. But while Steamroller obediently stood down, Sledgehammer seemed unwilling to let the ght end in a decision and spiritedly resisted the deputies’ repeat commands to cool his jets. Fact is, the only thing that kept the o cers from tasering the tenacious tussler was the crowd of fans massed around him. Finally wrestled out into the parking lot, Sledgehammer assumed a serenely professional – and oddly con dential – stance. “ ings are cool,” he winked. “We’re on the same side.” Turns out things were not cool at all, particularly since Sledgehammer was on also on the same side as an active arrest warrant. e belt went to Steamroller, and Sledgehammer went down for the count. turn it around. retirement. payments* while receiving proceeds

Sheri ’s Calls is intended as a humorous take on some of the incident call records of the Je erson County Sheri ’s O ce for the mountain communities. Names and identifying details have been changed. All individuals are innocent until proven guilty.