Transform Lives, One Wish at a Time

OUR YEAR IN WISHES

SEPTEMBER 2021 - AUGUST 2022

I wish to go to Gatlinburg, TN Waylon, 5 Connelly Springs, NC

I wish to go to Boca Raton

Jaime, 12 rare disease Mount Holly, NC page 13

L ooking back on 2022, I can’t help but marvel at how far we’ve come. Coming out of two years spent tackling a global pandemic — and granting fewer wishes than normal due to stalled travel — our chapter roared back in 2022, granting nearly 300 wishes.

While we never stopped creating hope for wish kids and their families, we did undergo two challenging years of uncertainty. However, 2022 was the year that we got the green light and officially declared that we were 100% back in business. We resumed full operations by granting all four wish types and did so at an incredible pace. And I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge your pivotal role in our triumphant comeback. Without your overwhelming support, our work each day wouldn’t be possible, and we wouldn’t have been able to change the lives of nearly 300 local children with critical illnesses in 2022. That’s why hope begins with us — not just our chapter, but our volunteers, our wish granters, our donors, our supporters — ALL of us. While we come from all walks of life, we’re one giant team committed to one incredible mission: Granting life-changing wishes for local children with critical illnesses who need it most.

Going forward into 2023, we hope to continue on with your support as we work to reach more funding sources and return to pre-pandemic levels of wish granting. We are well on our way to achieving these goals, but we still need your help more than ever. For many reasons, the cost of an average wish has grown to approximately $7,500. While we are granting wishes at an exceptional level, it’s still an uphill climb as we continue to process the backlog of wishes that resulted from the pandemic.

When children’s wishes are dreamed of, planned, and then granted, it provides them with the strength they need to fight their critical illness and all of the anxiety and pain that comes with it. They replace fear with confidence, sadness with joy, and anxiety with hope.

With your help, we can give even more hope to our wish kids and their families at a time when they need it most. But we can’t do it without you. Because, after all, hope begins with all of us.

Kathy