May 12, 2025 • 29 mins
What do a unicorn, a thousand trees, and an ice cream truck have in common? They’re all real wishes granted by Make-A-Wish Texas Gulf Coast and Louisiana—a nonprofit that’s been bringing hope, strength, and joy to kids with critical illnesses since 1984.
In Episode 137 of Spotlight Houston, host Blanca Quezada chats with Shelley Millwee, President & CEO of the local Make-A-Wish chapter. With over 11,000 wishes granted across 47 Texas counties and 64 Louisiana parishes, this inspiring organization creates unforgettable moments for children and their families.
Shelley shares powerful stories—like Aria, who wished to plant 1,000 trees in her neighborhood after a hurricane, and a boy who took over an ice cream truck for a day. Learn how each wish brings joy, healing, and sometimes even laughter when families need it most.
You’ll also hear how:
- Children are referred by doctors, hospitals, and even family members
- Volunteers and donors help make the magic happen
- Teens wish for everything from Disney trips to tech, pets, and shopping sprees
- The Young Leaders Board supports wishes through fun events like trivia nights, bingo, and crawfish boils
Want to help grant a wish? Visit https://www.wish.org/texgulf to volunteer, donate, or refer a child.
New episodes drop every Monday!
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Original Air Date: Monday, May 12, 2025
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Our team works very diligently and really closely with the medical
(00:03):
team to make sure that wish is granted when they need it the most.
Yeah. We do have many families that will opt to put their wish
on hold for a little bit, maybe until the end of treatment, or
we have a lot summer. We're coming up on summer right now, the
busiest time for us at Make A Wish because if you have a
child that's out of school most of the year and they get to go
(00:25):
back, they don't wanna take more time off until they're actually out
for summer. So we call it our summer of wishes, and it really
is a magical three months, one of the busiest times for
us to grant wishes.
Thank you for joining us for another episode of Spotlight Houston, where we bring you
(00:48):
the best people, places, and events in Greater Houston. In today's episode,
we're shining a light on an organization that brings joy, hope,
and unforgettable memories to children facing critical illnesses. Our
guest is Shelly Milwe, president and CEO of Make A
Wish Texas Gulf Coast in Louisiana. She joins our host
Blanca Quezada to share how this incredible nonprofit has
(01:10):
granted more than 11,000 wishes to kids and teens across
47 counties in Texas and 64 parishes in
Louisiana. You'll hear uplifting stories of children whose biggest
dreams like planting a thousand trees or running an ice cream
truck came true thanks to the dedication of volunteers,
donors, and community partners. Please note that we edited
(01:33):
the episode for time. This is episode one thirty seven with an
original air date of Monday, 05/12/2025. Spotlight
Houston is brought to you by Story Zone Media. And now here's your host,
Blanca Quesada. Hi. I'm Blanca Quesada, and welcome
to the show. It's great to have you here. Did you know
that Houston has this amazing, and I'm
(01:55):
talking amazing, foundation? And they've
and it's been around for several years,
and it grants life saving, changing
wishes for children with critical
illnesses. And it just transformed their
lives. They're getting to have fun and enjoy and get what they
(02:18):
want, what they they've been dreaming of, basically.
And, you know, there's a lot that I can say, but I've invited
Shelly Milwe. She's president and CEO of the
Make A Wish of Texas Gulf Coast and Louisiana
Foundation. And, she's here to tell us
how they will move anything
(02:40):
and or whatever it takes to make a child
live that special moment and whatever they've dreamt
about. Hi, Shelly. How are you doing? Hello. It's great to
see you, Blanca. Thank you for having us on. It's great to have you
here because there's so much we need to talk about for
this foundation. The Make A Wish Foundation is
(03:04):
so unique because no matter what it
may take, you're there, and you're granting
these amazing life changing wishes for children.
And you've been doing it since 1984. Right?
That's correct. Yes. We have we granted our first
wish ever actually back in 1980.
(03:26):
Oh, okay. And our chapter here, the Texas Gulf Coast and Louisiana chapter
has been around since 1984. So we've granted
thousands and thousands of wishes. Yeah. That was gonna be my next
question. How many wishes? Yeah. So our chapter
in particular has granted over 11,000
wishes just in the Texas Gulf Coast and Louisiana
(03:48):
region since we were founded in 1984. But what I
really just enjoy telling people is that since Make A
Wish was founded in 1980, more
than 600,000 wishes have been granted for
grants across the globe. We are a national
organization, but we're also a global organization. It's just
(04:10):
really spectacular to see how people come together to grant
wishes for kids when they need it the most. Yeah. And how many
counties does it serve in Texas and Louisiana?
Yes. So we are 47 Texas counties. We're
predominantly on the East Coast Of
Texas, if you will, and the entire state of Louisiana,
(04:33):
which is all 64 parishes. Wow. Wow.
Whose idea was it to start this foundation?
Because, like I said, it's unique. Yes. So
we were founded actually by a group of individuals
that came together to make a really special
moment for a little boy named Chris Scretius. When he
(04:55):
was four years old, he was diagnosed with leukemia.
Back in 1980, the medical advancements at
that time were very limited. And so, unfortunately,
he had a pretty poor prognosis. But little
Chris absolutely loved police officers.
He wanted to be a police officer when he grew up, and he had the
(05:17):
fortunate opportunity to meet a gentleman by the name of
Tommy Austin, who was a customs DEA
agent, and he just thought he was
better than sliced bread. Just they had such an immediate
connection. In fact, Tommy will tell you that the first time they
met, Chris actually put his hands up and said freeze, and
(05:40):
it was just an incredible bond. So Tommy, along with the many
of his friends that were with the Arizona Department of Public
Safety, came together to help his
reality to become a police officer
happen. And so a lot of individuals came together.
They took him up in a helicopter. He got to ride in a
(06:02):
police car. He got to write citations to people. He
actually was made an honorary police officer, and it
was just a really special experience that no doubt
transformed an entire community. Yeah. And that's really the
found founding of Make A Wish. Yeah. And definitely,
you know, him as well. You know, it gave him that
(06:25):
that energy, that, what can you call it,
the hope to get better?
Yes. It did. You know, what Tommy will share with
you is that the day they were going to grant
Chris's wish, he'd been very sick for weeks leading up
to this day, and he said his phone rang at 6AM that
(06:47):
morning. And little Chris said to him, Tommy, did you forget about me? He
said, no. I'm on my way. And little Chris was
standing out on the side of the driveway waiting for
Tommy to pick him up that day for his wish to come true. And
so there's no doubt that giving a child the
hope of something exciting coming to life,
(07:09):
no doubt has a major impact on just their overall
mental health and their health journey. Yeah. That energy,
knowing that they've got something to do, something exciting, something
fun. Right? Yes. Yes. Exactly. So
how is it that these children get selected to
have their wishes granted? We grant
(07:31):
wishes for children between the ages of two and a half and
18 years of age. We work with their medical
team to qualify them based on their
diagnosis of battling a critical illness.
And we ask that every child has not had a wish
granted before, either from Make A Wish or another wish
(07:53):
granting organization. And this just allows us to reach as
many kids possible with the power of a wish. Yeah.
Over the years, what have been the some of the
most impactful wishes that have been
made or that you've been a part of? I tell you
what, these children are some of the most inspiring
(08:15):
people I've ever met in my life. In the last five years since I've
joined Make A Wish, I've had the opportunity to see every
type of wish imaginable come true. One that we
most recently granted just a few weeks ago was a
precious little girl by the name of Aria, and she
wished to plant a thousand trees in her community
(08:37):
because of, effects of the hurricane last year. And it
was just amazing to see how all the
stars aligned for us to be able to grant a wish of
that magnitude. So she's certainly inspired me,
and we've had kids oh, we have a ton of kids that give their
wishes away. They want to buy their mother a
(09:00):
really nice watch, or they wanna take their brother
shopping. Those wishes are very special because our
kids are so selfless. But I think they know everything that
they go through with their own illness impacts their entire
family, and so those are certainly very moving. Yeah.
We have had we've had a wish where a kid
(09:21):
wanted to swim with otters, and that's, like, the
most interesting wish. We have kids that
obviously wish to go to Disney World and wish to travel. Last year,
Hawaii was a huge, hugely popular destination.
Alaska with the Northern Lights. Kids certainly love
to have those experiences and be able to
(09:44):
bring their family along for the ride. Yeah. What do teens
usually ask for? Oh, goodness. Teens,
I'd say we get a lot of requests for iPhones and
electronics and computers and gaming systems.
We've done a lot of home movie theater, you
know, makeovers. We have wishes
(10:07):
for animals. We have little puppies and cats.
We gave away a bird. So it just really varies.
We obviously check with mom and dad to make sure that a pet is
allowed before we just deliver one. But but,
yeah, I think our goal at the end of the day is to look for
the yes because this is an opportunity for kids to regain some of
(10:29):
the control that they don't have in their day to day lives. And I bet
they don't complain at all. They don't. They
usually don't. Yeah. You had mentioned Ari?
Aria? Arias. Aria. And I had heard of Aria. And I
was like, where are they gonna get a thousand trees,
and where are they going to plant all these trees? So I'm
(10:51):
sure it takes a lot of people to
you know, a huge community to help you with some of these
wishes. Guaca, I will tell you, I too was
asking those same questions. Where are we gonna get all these trees?
I think the first question was a a thousand. Why did you decide
on a thousand? And in typical kids
(11:14):
style, she goes, it sounds like a big number. Of course, it
is. We're so fortunate to have just outstanding
relationships with Make A Wish. I was able to phone a couple of our
board members that are just incredibly connected, and I was able
to make a connection with Trees for Houston, which is just an amazing
nonprofit here in Houston. And what was amazing was
(11:36):
there was there were no questions asked. They said, we will
donate all thousand trees. And that was the first
step of bringing this wish to life was tracking
down trees. We knew that we needed some specialists to come
alongside us. We don't know anything about planting trees
and how to take care of them and all those pieces. But after some
(11:58):
discussions with trees for Houston, we decided, gosh, what an amazing
way to spread Aria's joy by hosting a
community tree giveaway. And so we partnered with
Constellation Field And Memorial Park to actually give
away about 450 trees at each of those locations
one Saturday, and the we had wait list for the trees. They
(12:20):
were all picked up. So it was great. Wow.
Great people out there. And I also heard that she's a very
smart little girl, and I think it was during the hurricane
or something, their neighbors lost their trees. Yes. And
she's become an environmentalist, basically.
(12:40):
She just can't wait to watch the trees grow up and bring joy to
her community. That is exactly what she's told us. And so I think it's just
it's very inspirational Yeah. What she's
done. Yeah. Definitely. I just
couldn't understand. It's like, why is she asking? Because
I hadn't heard that of other kids that would ask
(13:03):
for something else other than something for themselves.
Yeah. And this was major. Wow. Yes.
It's a great team. I think in another really inspiring
story, we have amazing former wish kid.
He's an adult now as a working professional, but his wish
was to be the boss of the ice cream man. Oh, no.
(13:25):
And his so he essentially took over an ice
cream truck and passed out free ice cream to all of his friends
when he I think he was around five years old, and I love that so
much because it just speaks to the heart of the kid. But what
Robin, the wish kid, will tell you today is that you can
see the photo of him passing out the free ice cream, but he said what
(13:47):
you don't see is the entire group of 30
plus people from his neighborhood that were following behind that ice
cream truck cheering him on. And I think that just speaks to the
spirit of Make A Wish. That's really what we try to do is bring a
community together around a sick child. Yeah. So how are kids
referred to the Make A Wish Foundation? We get
(14:09):
referrals from many different sources. Primarily, we work with
hospitals. We work with child life specialists. We work
with various different specialties within
hospital systems that make referrals to us. We also
receive referrals from parents and sometimes family friends.
But, ultimately, every wish goes through a qualification
(14:31):
process where we do work with the child's medical team to
ensure that they're eligible for a wish and that the wish that
they desire is medically acceptable. If we had
a kid that wanted to jump out of an air airplane, we'd probably have
to really make sure that was okay. Yeah. Before we we
went to grant that. Did you grant it? No. I haven't
(14:53):
seen that one yet. Please. I don't want to see that
one. That gives me a lot of things.
It's just amazing that you can grant
these wishes for these kids. And but
how do you select a kid when they
(15:13):
all want a wish. And, unfortunately,
there are hundreds of little kids, teenagers as
well, that happen to be going through some
critical situations. So how is it
that you can select one kid and not another?
Yeah. So we right now, we have a little over 1,100
(15:36):
kids that are waiting for a wish to be granted in in the
Texas Gulf Coast and Louisiana area. And
this year, we are on track to grant 650 of
those, which is incredible. It's more than we've ever granted
as a chapter. We host a lot of fundraising events, and we
raise as much money as possible so that we can grant as many wishes
(15:59):
as possible in a year. You know, what we'll tell you is
that we know when we start next year, we have
500 of those kids that are coming along the journey with
us. And we try to grant the wishes in the order that we
receive them. And, of course, you never can tell. Sometimes
prognosis will change. Time lines will change. And
(16:21):
if we hear from a doctor that says, hey. We need to grant this wish
sooner, we will move everything to make sure that wish
happens for a child. Our team works very diligently and really
closely with the medical team to make sure that wish is granted when they need
it the most. Yeah. We do have many families that will
opt to put their wish on hold for a little bit maybe until the end
(16:42):
of treatment or we have a lot summer we're coming up on summer right
now the busiest time for us at Make A Wish because
if you have a child that's out of school most of the year and they
get to go back, they don't want to take more time off until they're
actually out for summer. So we call it our summer of wishes, and
it really is a magical three months, one of the
(17:04):
busiest times for us to grant wishes. What kind of wishes
do you grant during the summer? As
any type of wish you can imagine. We try to
avoid, like, high peak seasons. Going to
Hawaii in the July can be really costly for us,
and so we may ask a child to wait until September. But
(17:27):
for the most part, during the summer, we're granting a lot of travel
wishes, a lot of trips to Disney World. We do
a lot of shopping sprees, believe it or not. When you can give a
child a gift card with money on it and their parents can't
tell them what they can do with their money, that is give them the card.
For right fee. Yeah. But crazy. Yes.
(17:48):
So we may spend six hours in every store all across the
city. They get to shop and pick out the things that they want. So
really and truly, we just we grant every type of wish you can imagine.
Yeah. Does someone from the foundation accompany
them when they're going through their wish? Yeah. So we
actually have a team of people that help bring a wish to
(18:10):
life. Obviously, our staff plays a really big role and
just primarily the back end of a wish. Where we
rely heavily is on volunteers. So right now, we have
about 450 volunteers that serve
many different roles within the organization, but, primarily, it's
wish granting. And so we will have volunteers that meet
(18:33):
with the family. They do wish discovery with our kids and
interview them. We'll get everything together. They'll come and pick
their packet up and then go and deliver that back to the family. So
oftentimes, our volunteers are our hands and feet in the community so that
we can continue to process the wishes on the back end. And
how can we become a volunteer? Volunteers
(18:55):
are welcome any day of the week. You can actually go to our
site. It's wish.orgbackslashtexgulf.
That's texgulf. And there is
a volunteer application on our website where you can
submit your interest and our volunteer manager, Nikki, will reach out
and let you know when our volunteer training is. Yeah. I saw
(19:18):
a story about a little girl that wanted to meet
a unicorn. Yes. And it
definitely takes somebody to know what
how to get a horse and make a move like a unicorn.
Absolutely. And sometimes the wishes are complicated, and
volunteers will say, hey. How do we need to go about this? And we
(19:42):
have, again, so many relationships. We just granted a wish
for a teenager with the Houston Livestock Show and
Rodeo. Oh. They provided us a Brahmin
cow. Oh, wow. A Brahmin cow in his backyard
Wow. And had a pastor and all those pieces to be able to take care
of it. So, yeah, you just you figure out we always
(20:04):
say this. Where there's a wish, we find a way. And so
the again, we just look for that yes and try to bring magic into to
these kids in people's lives. You also have a
young leaders' board. What do they do? How do they
help? Yes. We have an incredible young leaders'
board. I'd say it's about forty forty or 50
(20:25):
young leaders in our community here in Houston that have come
together. I'd say it's a networking opportunity, but
they rally around our wish kids and actually fund
wishes and help grant them for our chapter. But they do it in a
really unique way. They host events throughout the year. They just
recently did a bingo night. They do a trivia night. And they
(20:48):
just bring a lot of creativity into fundraising
and camaraderie amongst their peers. So they're just an incredible group
of very smart, passionate leaders in our community.
Yeah. They have a mission that they're working for.
So so you also you had mentioned that you have events
(21:09):
throughout the year. What events do you have coming up soon?
Yeah. We just completed our largest fundraising
gala, actually, just last week. It was our
second annual wish ball. This is a black tie fundraiser that
we do annually. Just an outstanding
feat for our team. We'll be planning that in April.
(21:31):
It'll be 04/10/2026. We already have the date
for next year. Oh, great. Yes. And this has just been a huge
undertaking for our chapter, but one that we're super passionate about. We
were able to raise $1,800,000 to
help grant wishes in the coming year at our event last week.
So I'd say that's certainly, I would say, one of our tent
(21:53):
pole or flagship events. We do a number
of mixers and socials in the community throughout the
year. We do a builders of hope clay
sporting clay event in the fall, and that is put on
by the construction industry. We have a great group of
companies that come together to put that together. So there's sponsorships and pieces to
(22:15):
get involved there. We are growing tremendously in Louisiana
as well. Really, you can find out all of our events and things that are
happening on our website or in our social media accounts. Yeah. I heard you're
having a crawfish event happening soon in Louisiana.
Yes. Louisianans love their crawfish, so we said we're
gonna do our Crawfishes and Wishes event. Oh, that's
(22:37):
perfect. Be coming up in a few weeks here in Baton
Rouge, which is a great community for us as well. So
it'll be fun. So if we can't become a
volunteer or attend some of these events for whatever reason,
is there any way that we can help anyway?
Absolutely. I think give us a call. Let
(22:59):
us know how you would like to plug in. Oftentimes,
we're looking for skill based volunteers, photographers,
videographers, folks that wanna help us tell our kids stories.
We most recently were looking for some counselors to come in.
As you can imagine, it's not always sunshine and rainbows.
We have tough days too, and we walk alongside our families. And
(23:22):
so I would just encourage anybody that wants to get involved
to pick up the phone, give us a call, and we will find
an opportunity for you to serve this mission alongside us.
Can we make donations or send in donations?
Absolutely. Fundraising is really critical to us being
able to grant wishes. And so if someone would like to make a gift to
(23:46):
our organization, you can go online and you can do that
directly. We accept cash check,
stocks, donor advised funds, a number of ways that you
can make a gift and have an impact in our organization. Used cars?
We do, believe it or not, have a relationship with a company. We don't
accept the cars, but we do have a relationship.
(24:09):
Yes. It's called Car Donation Foundation.
Yes. We also have that as a resource. Yeah. So,
Shelly, can you mention your website one more time,
please? Our website is
www.wish.0rgbackslashtexgulf.
(24:33):
You mentioned that people can call. So what is the number?
If someone would like to give us a call, you can find our phone number
on our website as well as all of our email addresses for
each of our staff members, depending on where you'd like to get involved. Is it
possible also to maybe donate toys or
games? Or kids like to pay play video games,
(24:55):
especially the teens. Yes. We have
an entire toy room, actually, at our Make A Wish office in
Houston. And so the holidays are a really great time.
If companies or individuals would like to do a toy drive. We are
always looking for inventory. One of the things our
volunteers do when they meet with our wish kids is they pick out a very
(25:17):
special toy for each of our kids and they take that for their first
meeting with them. So toys are always welcome. Yeah.
Yeah. And is there ever anything special you do
for the parents? Because I know that it's difficult on the parents as
well. Parents are most definitely
the backbone of their family and the support of their
(25:40):
child. What I will say is that oftentimes, we are
giving a wish to a child, but it feels like it's for
the entire family. I have feedback from parents all the time that
say I've never seen my child smile so much, or this gave our
family a great break from the doctor's appointments
and the countless tests and waiting on results. This
(26:03):
gave our family a time to just breathe
and be together. Wishes aren't just for their children. It
has an indirect impact on everyone in the entire family. Yeah.
It takes that thought of them being ill
for a certain amount of time, and being in that
situation is really stare stressful and scary.
(26:26):
And but when you see your child having a great
time, like you said, the whole family gets involved
and they're laughing and they're having a good time. And
so it changes for everybody. It's a major transformation,
I think. Yes. When you have a child that is dealing with a
critical illness, there's a high level of trauma
(26:49):
that every member of the family is battling, not
knowing what the outcome is gonna be, not knowing how the treatments
are gonna be received. Those are really scary and dark
times for family members. I will tell you as a parent
working in this mission day in and day out, I will tell you, I look
at my children every single day, and I'm so grateful that they're
(27:11):
healthy. And I'm not battling this situation that some of
our kids are. I have great empathy for all the parents that are in
this situation with their kids. Definitely. Because as you just mentioned, you
don't know what the outcome is going to be. Unfortunately,
I got to see two children pass away. They had
both had leukemia, and one was seven
(27:34):
and one was 12. So it was heart
wrenching So sorry. To to be there.
And it's like you can't console the parent.
There's nothing you can do, nothing you can say is to be there.
But but when you have these special moments, when
the child is laughing and having a good time, you take those
(27:57):
thoughts out of your mind as a parent. Yes. Yes. Absolutely.
I'm so sorry for your loss. Thank you. It really
is unimaginable what some of our families go
through. And I think there's great purpose
in Make A Wish and Yeah. Where we enter the
conversation. We try to be that light
(28:19):
and that joy so that when
family see us, they know that we're coming with something really
great. We're not another set of bad news. No.
And, yeah, it's a really I'll say it's just a very special
place to be involved in. I feel very fortunate that I get to
do this job every day. Yeah. Thanks to you, and thanks
(28:42):
to the Make A Wish Foundation for making such a big
difference in in a child's life and also the parents
and the entire family. So thank you for doing that. And,
of course, everyone can get more details, more information
by searching your website and also
calling if they want to volunteer or help out in
(29:05):
any way they can. Absolutely. We're so grateful. Thank you for the
opportunity to talk about our mission and our favorite wishes
and all of those things. We just really are grateful for people like
you, Blanca, that open up your voice to share more about our
mission. So thank you. I wanna help a little bit. Well, you're
doing a great job. So thank you. And I would
(29:27):
also like to thank you as well for joining me and hope you
can make a difference in a child's life by calling the Make A Wish
Foundation. And, also, please send me your comments or any
story ideas you might have. Thank you.
Our team works very diligently and really closely with the medical
(00:03):
team to make sure that wish is granted when they need it the most.
Yeah. We do have many families that will opt to put their wish
on hold for a little bit, maybe until the end of treatment, or
we have a lot summer. We're coming up on summer right now, the
busiest time for us at Make A Wish because if you have a
child that's out of school most of the year and they get to go
(00:25):
back, they don't wanna take more time off until they're actually out
for summer. So we call it our summer of wishes, and it really
is a magical three months, one of the busiest times for
us to grant wishes.
Thank you for joining us for another episode of Spotlight Houston, where we bring you
(00:48):
the best people, places, and events in Greater Houston. In today's episode,
we're shining a light on an organization that brings joy, hope,
and unforgettable memories to children facing critical illnesses. Our
guest is Shelly Milwe, president and CEO of Make A
Wish Texas Gulf Coast in Louisiana. She joins our host
Blanca Quezada to share how this incredible nonprofit has
(01:10):
granted more than 11,000 wishes to kids and teens across
47 counties in Texas and 64 parishes in
Louisiana. You'll hear uplifting stories of children whose biggest
dreams like planting a thousand trees or running an ice cream
truck came true thanks to the dedication of volunteers,
donors, and community partners. Please note that we edited
(01:33):
the episode for time. This is episode one thirty seven with an
original air date of Monday, 05/12/2025. Spotlight
Houston is brought to you by Story Zone Media. And now here's your host,
Blanca Quesada. Hi. I'm Blanca Quesada, and welcome
to the show. It's great to have you here. Did you know
that Houston has this amazing, and I'm
(01:55):
talking amazing, foundation? And they've
and it's been around for several years,
and it grants life saving, changing
wishes for children with critical
illnesses. And it just transformed their
lives. They're getting to have fun and enjoy and get what they
(02:18):
want, what they they've been dreaming of, basically.
And, you know, there's a lot that I can say, but I've invited
Shelly Milwe. She's president and CEO of the
Make A Wish of Texas Gulf Coast and Louisiana
Foundation. And, she's here to tell us
how they will move anything
(02:40):
and or whatever it takes to make a child
live that special moment and whatever they've dreamt
about. Hi, Shelly. How are you doing? Hello. It's great to
see you, Blanca. Thank you for having us on. It's great to have you
here because there's so much we need to talk about for
this foundation. The Make A Wish Foundation is
(03:04):
so unique because no matter what it
may take, you're there, and you're granting
these amazing life changing wishes for children.
And you've been doing it since 1984. Right?
That's correct. Yes. We have we granted our first
wish ever actually back in 1980.
(03:26):
Oh, okay. And our chapter here, the Texas Gulf Coast and Louisiana chapter
has been around since 1984. So we've granted
thousands and thousands of wishes. Yeah. That was gonna be my next
question. How many wishes? Yeah. So our chapter
in particular has granted over 11,000
wishes just in the Texas Gulf Coast and Louisiana
(03:48):
region since we were founded in 1984. But what I
really just enjoy telling people is that since Make A
Wish was founded in 1980, more
than 600,000 wishes have been granted for
grants across the globe. We are a national
organization, but we're also a global organization. It's just
(04:10):
really spectacular to see how people come together to grant
wishes for kids when they need it the most. Yeah. And how many
counties does it serve in Texas and Louisiana?
Yes. So we are 47 Texas counties. We're
predominantly on the East Coast Of
Texas, if you will, and the entire state of Louisiana,
(04:33):
which is all 64 parishes. Wow. Wow.
Whose idea was it to start this foundation?
Because, like I said, it's unique. Yes. So
we were founded actually by a group of individuals
that came together to make a really special
moment for a little boy named Chris Scretius. When he
(04:55):
was four years old, he was diagnosed with leukemia.
Back in 1980, the medical advancements at
that time were very limited. And so, unfortunately,
he had a pretty poor prognosis. But little
Chris absolutely loved police officers.
He wanted to be a police officer when he grew up, and he had the
(05:17):
fortunate opportunity to meet a gentleman by the name of
Tommy Austin, who was a customs DEA
agent, and he just thought he was
better than sliced bread. Just they had such an immediate
connection. In fact, Tommy will tell you that the first time they
met, Chris actually put his hands up and said freeze, and
(05:40):
it was just an incredible bond. So Tommy, along with the many
of his friends that were with the Arizona Department of Public
Safety, came together to help his
reality to become a police officer
happen. And so a lot of individuals came together.
They took him up in a helicopter. He got to ride in a
(06:02):
police car. He got to write citations to people. He
actually was made an honorary police officer, and it
was just a really special experience that no doubt
transformed an entire community. Yeah. And that's really the
found founding of Make A Wish. Yeah. And definitely,
you know, him as well. You know, it gave him that
(06:25):
that energy, that, what can you call it,
the hope to get better?
Yes. It did. You know, what Tommy will share with
you is that the day they were going to grant
Chris's wish, he'd been very sick for weeks leading up
to this day, and he said his phone rang at 6AM that
(06:47):
morning. And little Chris said to him, Tommy, did you forget about me? He
said, no. I'm on my way. And little Chris was
standing out on the side of the driveway waiting for
Tommy to pick him up that day for his wish to come true. And
so there's no doubt that giving a child the
hope of something exciting coming to life,
(07:09):
no doubt has a major impact on just their overall
mental health and their health journey. Yeah. That energy,
knowing that they've got something to do, something exciting, something
fun. Right? Yes. Yes. Exactly. So
how is it that these children get selected to
have their wishes granted? We grant
(07:31):
wishes for children between the ages of two and a half and
18 years of age. We work with their medical
team to qualify them based on their
diagnosis of battling a critical illness.
And we ask that every child has not had a wish
granted before, either from Make A Wish or another wish
(07:53):
granting organization. And this just allows us to reach as
many kids possible with the power of a wish. Yeah.
Over the years, what have been the some of the
most impactful wishes that have been
made or that you've been a part of? I tell you
what, these children are some of the most inspiring
(08:15):
people I've ever met in my life. In the last five years since I've
joined Make A Wish, I've had the opportunity to see every
type of wish imaginable come true. One that we
most recently granted just a few weeks ago was a
precious little girl by the name of Aria, and she
wished to plant a thousand trees in her community
(08:37):
because of, effects of the hurricane last year. And it
was just amazing to see how all the
stars aligned for us to be able to grant a wish of
that magnitude. So she's certainly inspired me,
and we've had kids oh, we have a ton of kids that give their
wishes away. They want to buy their mother a
(09:00):
really nice watch, or they wanna take their brother
shopping. Those wishes are very special because our
kids are so selfless. But I think they know everything that
they go through with their own illness impacts their entire
family, and so those are certainly very moving. Yeah.
We have had we've had a wish where a kid
(09:21):
wanted to swim with otters, and that's, like, the
most interesting wish. We have kids that
obviously wish to go to Disney World and wish to travel. Last year,
Hawaii was a huge, hugely popular destination.
Alaska with the Northern Lights. Kids certainly love
to have those experiences and be able to
(09:44):
bring their family along for the ride. Yeah. What do teens
usually ask for? Oh, goodness. Teens,
I'd say we get a lot of requests for iPhones and
electronics and computers and gaming systems.
We've done a lot of home movie theater, you
know, makeovers. We have wishes
(10:07):
for animals. We have little puppies and cats.
We gave away a bird. So it just really varies.
We obviously check with mom and dad to make sure that a pet is
allowed before we just deliver one. But but,
yeah, I think our goal at the end of the day is to look for
the yes because this is an opportunity for kids to regain some of
(10:29):
the control that they don't have in their day to day lives. And I bet
they don't complain at all. They don't. They
usually don't. Yeah. You had mentioned Ari?
Aria? Arias. Aria. And I had heard of Aria. And I
was like, where are they gonna get a thousand trees,
and where are they going to plant all these trees? So I'm
(10:51):
sure it takes a lot of people to
you know, a huge community to help you with some of these
wishes. Guaca, I will tell you, I too was
asking those same questions. Where are we gonna get all these trees?
I think the first question was a a thousand. Why did you decide
on a thousand? And in typical kids
(11:14):
style, she goes, it sounds like a big number. Of course, it
is. We're so fortunate to have just outstanding
relationships with Make A Wish. I was able to phone a couple of our
board members that are just incredibly connected, and I was able
to make a connection with Trees for Houston, which is just an amazing
nonprofit here in Houston. And what was amazing was
(11:36):
there was there were no questions asked. They said, we will
donate all thousand trees. And that was the first
step of bringing this wish to life was tracking
down trees. We knew that we needed some specialists to come
alongside us. We don't know anything about planting trees
and how to take care of them and all those pieces. But after some
(11:58):
discussions with trees for Houston, we decided, gosh, what an amazing
way to spread Aria's joy by hosting a
community tree giveaway. And so we partnered with
Constellation Field And Memorial Park to actually give
away about 450 trees at each of those locations
one Saturday, and the we had wait list for the trees. They
(12:20):
were all picked up. So it was great. Wow.
Great people out there. And I also heard that she's a very
smart little girl, and I think it was during the hurricane
or something, their neighbors lost their trees. Yes. And
she's become an environmentalist, basically.
(12:40):
She just can't wait to watch the trees grow up and bring joy to
her community. That is exactly what she's told us. And so I think it's just
it's very inspirational Yeah. What she's
done. Yeah. Definitely. I just
couldn't understand. It's like, why is she asking? Because
I hadn't heard that of other kids that would ask
(13:03):
for something else other than something for themselves.
Yeah. And this was major. Wow. Yes.
It's a great team. I think in another really inspiring
story, we have amazing former wish kid.
He's an adult now as a working professional, but his wish
was to be the boss of the ice cream man. Oh, no.
(13:25):
And his so he essentially took over an ice
cream truck and passed out free ice cream to all of his friends
when he I think he was around five years old, and I love that so
much because it just speaks to the heart of the kid. But what
Robin, the wish kid, will tell you today is that you can
see the photo of him passing out the free ice cream, but he said what
(13:47):
you don't see is the entire group of 30
plus people from his neighborhood that were following behind that ice
cream truck cheering him on. And I think that just speaks to the
spirit of Make A Wish. That's really what we try to do is bring a
community together around a sick child. Yeah. So how are kids
referred to the Make A Wish Foundation? We get
(14:09):
referrals from many different sources. Primarily, we work with
hospitals. We work with child life specialists. We work
with various different specialties within
hospital systems that make referrals to us. We also
receive referrals from parents and sometimes family friends.
But, ultimately, every wish goes through a qualification
(14:31):
process where we do work with the child's medical team to
ensure that they're eligible for a wish and that the wish that
they desire is medically acceptable. If we had
a kid that wanted to jump out of an air airplane, we'd probably have
to really make sure that was okay. Yeah. Before we we
went to grant that. Did you grant it? No. I haven't
(14:53):
seen that one yet. Please. I don't want to see that
one. That gives me a lot of things.
It's just amazing that you can grant
these wishes for these kids. And but
how do you select a kid when they
(15:13):
all want a wish. And, unfortunately,
there are hundreds of little kids, teenagers as
well, that happen to be going through some
critical situations. So how is it
that you can select one kid and not another?
Yeah. So we right now, we have a little over 1,100
(15:36):
kids that are waiting for a wish to be granted in in the
Texas Gulf Coast and Louisiana area. And
this year, we are on track to grant 650 of
those, which is incredible. It's more than we've ever granted
as a chapter. We host a lot of fundraising events, and we
raise as much money as possible so that we can grant as many wishes
(15:59):
as possible in a year. You know, what we'll tell you is
that we know when we start next year, we have
500 of those kids that are coming along the journey with
us. And we try to grant the wishes in the order that we
receive them. And, of course, you never can tell. Sometimes
prognosis will change. Time lines will change. And
(16:21):
if we hear from a doctor that says, hey. We need to grant this wish
sooner, we will move everything to make sure that wish
happens for a child. Our team works very diligently and really
closely with the medical team to make sure that wish is granted when they need
it the most. Yeah. We do have many families that will
opt to put their wish on hold for a little bit maybe until the end
(16:42):
of treatment or we have a lot summer we're coming up on summer right
now the busiest time for us at Make A Wish because
if you have a child that's out of school most of the year and they
get to go back, they don't want to take more time off until they're
actually out for summer. So we call it our summer of wishes, and
it really is a magical three months, one of the
(17:04):
busiest times for us to grant wishes. What kind of wishes
do you grant during the summer? As
any type of wish you can imagine. We try to
avoid, like, high peak seasons. Going to
Hawaii in the July can be really costly for us,
and so we may ask a child to wait until September. But
(17:27):
for the most part, during the summer, we're granting a lot of travel
wishes, a lot of trips to Disney World. We do
a lot of shopping sprees, believe it or not. When you can give a
child a gift card with money on it and their parents can't
tell them what they can do with their money, that is give them the card.
For right fee. Yeah. But crazy. Yes.
(17:48):
So we may spend six hours in every store all across the
city. They get to shop and pick out the things that they want. So
really and truly, we just we grant every type of wish you can imagine.
Yeah. Does someone from the foundation accompany
them when they're going through their wish? Yeah. So we
actually have a team of people that help bring a wish to
(18:10):
life. Obviously, our staff plays a really big role and
just primarily the back end of a wish. Where we
rely heavily is on volunteers. So right now, we have
about 450 volunteers that serve
many different roles within the organization, but, primarily, it's
wish granting. And so we will have volunteers that meet
(18:33):
with the family. They do wish discovery with our kids and
interview them. We'll get everything together. They'll come and pick
their packet up and then go and deliver that back to the family. So
oftentimes, our volunteers are our hands and feet in the community so that
we can continue to process the wishes on the back end. And
how can we become a volunteer? Volunteers
(18:55):
are welcome any day of the week. You can actually go to our
site. It's wish.orgbackslashtexgulf.
That's texgulf. And there is
a volunteer application on our website where you can
submit your interest and our volunteer manager, Nikki, will reach out
and let you know when our volunteer training is. Yeah. I saw
(19:18):
a story about a little girl that wanted to meet
a unicorn. Yes. And it
definitely takes somebody to know what
how to get a horse and make a move like a unicorn.
Absolutely. And sometimes the wishes are complicated, and
volunteers will say, hey. How do we need to go about this? And we
(19:42):
have, again, so many relationships. We just granted a wish
for a teenager with the Houston Livestock Show and
Rodeo. Oh. They provided us a Brahmin
cow. Oh, wow. A Brahmin cow in his backyard
Wow. And had a pastor and all those pieces to be able to take care
of it. So, yeah, you just you figure out we always
(20:04):
say this. Where there's a wish, we find a way. And so
the again, we just look for that yes and try to bring magic into to
these kids in people's lives. You also have a
young leaders' board. What do they do? How do they
help? Yes. We have an incredible young leaders'
board. I'd say it's about forty forty or 50
(20:25):
young leaders in our community here in Houston that have come
together. I'd say it's a networking opportunity, but
they rally around our wish kids and actually fund
wishes and help grant them for our chapter. But they do it in a
really unique way. They host events throughout the year. They just
recently did a bingo night. They do a trivia night. And they
(20:48):
just bring a lot of creativity into fundraising
and camaraderie amongst their peers. So they're just an incredible group
of very smart, passionate leaders in our community.
Yeah. They have a mission that they're working for.
So so you also you had mentioned that you have events
(21:09):
throughout the year. What events do you have coming up soon?
Yeah. We just completed our largest fundraising
gala, actually, just last week. It was our
second annual wish ball. This is a black tie fundraiser that
we do annually. Just an outstanding
feat for our team. We'll be planning that in April.
(21:31):
It'll be 04/10/2026. We already have the date
for next year. Oh, great. Yes. And this has just been a huge
undertaking for our chapter, but one that we're super passionate about. We
were able to raise $1,800,000 to
help grant wishes in the coming year at our event last week.
So I'd say that's certainly, I would say, one of our tent
(21:53):
pole or flagship events. We do a number
of mixers and socials in the community throughout the
year. We do a builders of hope clay
sporting clay event in the fall, and that is put on
by the construction industry. We have a great group of
companies that come together to put that together. So there's sponsorships and pieces to
(22:15):
get involved there. We are growing tremendously in Louisiana
as well. Really, you can find out all of our events and things that are
happening on our website or in our social media accounts. Yeah. I heard you're
having a crawfish event happening soon in Louisiana.
Yes. Louisianans love their crawfish, so we said we're
gonna do our Crawfishes and Wishes event. Oh, that's
(22:37):
perfect. Be coming up in a few weeks here in Baton
Rouge, which is a great community for us as well. So
it'll be fun. So if we can't become a
volunteer or attend some of these events for whatever reason,
is there any way that we can help anyway?
Absolutely. I think give us a call. Let
(22:59):
us know how you would like to plug in. Oftentimes,
we're looking for skill based volunteers, photographers,
videographers, folks that wanna help us tell our kids stories.
We most recently were looking for some counselors to come in.
As you can imagine, it's not always sunshine and rainbows.
We have tough days too, and we walk alongside our families. And
(23:22):
so I would just encourage anybody that wants to get involved
to pick up the phone, give us a call, and we will find
an opportunity for you to serve this mission alongside us.
Can we make donations or send in donations?
Absolutely. Fundraising is really critical to us being
able to grant wishes. And so if someone would like to make a gift to
(23:46):
our organization, you can go online and you can do that
directly. We accept cash check,
stocks, donor advised funds, a number of ways that you
can make a gift and have an impact in our organization. Used cars?
We do, believe it or not, have a relationship with a company. We don't
accept the cars, but we do have a relationship.
(24:09):
Yes. It's called Car Donation Foundation.
Yes. We also have that as a resource. Yeah. So,
Shelly, can you mention your website one more time,
please? Our website is
www.wish.0rgbackslashtexgulf.
(24:33):
You mentioned that people can call. So what is the number?
If someone would like to give us a call, you can find our phone number
on our website as well as all of our email addresses for
each of our staff members, depending on where you'd like to get involved. Is it
possible also to maybe donate toys or
games? Or kids like to pay play video games,
(24:55):
especially the teens. Yes. We have
an entire toy room, actually, at our Make A Wish office in
Houston. And so the holidays are a really great time.
If companies or individuals would like to do a toy drive. We are
always looking for inventory. One of the things our
volunteers do when they meet with our wish kids is they pick out a very
(25:17):
special toy for each of our kids and they take that for their first
meeting with them. So toys are always welcome. Yeah.
Yeah. And is there ever anything special you do
for the parents? Because I know that it's difficult on the parents as
well. Parents are most definitely
the backbone of their family and the support of their
(25:40):
child. What I will say is that oftentimes, we are
giving a wish to a child, but it feels like it's for
the entire family. I have feedback from parents all the time that
say I've never seen my child smile so much, or this gave our
family a great break from the doctor's appointments
and the countless tests and waiting on results. This
(26:03):
gave our family a time to just breathe
and be together. Wishes aren't just for their children. It
has an indirect impact on everyone in the entire family. Yeah.
It takes that thought of them being ill
for a certain amount of time, and being in that
situation is really stare stressful and scary.
(26:26):
And but when you see your child having a great
time, like you said, the whole family gets involved
and they're laughing and they're having a good time. And
so it changes for everybody. It's a major transformation,
I think. Yes. When you have a child that is dealing with a
critical illness, there's a high level of trauma
(26:49):
that every member of the family is battling, not
knowing what the outcome is gonna be, not knowing how the treatments
are gonna be received. Those are really scary and dark
times for family members. I will tell you as a parent
working in this mission day in and day out, I will tell you, I look
at my children every single day, and I'm so grateful that they're
(27:11):
healthy. And I'm not battling this situation that some of
our kids are. I have great empathy for all the parents that are in
this situation with their kids. Definitely. Because as you just mentioned, you
don't know what the outcome is going to be. Unfortunately,
I got to see two children pass away. They had
both had leukemia, and one was seven
(27:34):
and one was 12. So it was heart
wrenching So sorry. To to be there.
And it's like you can't console the parent.
There's nothing you can do, nothing you can say is to be there.
But but when you have these special moments, when
the child is laughing and having a good time, you take those
(27:57):
thoughts out of your mind as a parent. Yes. Yes. Absolutely.
I'm so sorry for your loss. Thank you. It really
is unimaginable what some of our families go
through. And I think there's great purpose
in Make A Wish and Yeah. Where we enter the
conversation. We try to be that light
(28:19):
and that joy so that when
family see us, they know that we're coming with something really
great. We're not another set of bad news. No.
And, yeah, it's a really I'll say it's just a very special
place to be involved in. I feel very fortunate that I get to
do this job every day. Yeah. Thanks to you, and thanks
(28:42):
to the Make A Wish Foundation for making such a big
difference in in a child's life and also the parents
and the entire family. So thank you for doing that. And,
of course, everyone can get more details, more information
by searching your website and also
calling if they want to volunteer or help out in
(29:05):
any way they can. Absolutely. We're so grateful. Thank you for the
opportunity to talk about our mission and our favorite wishes
and all of those things. We just really are grateful for people like
you, Blanca, that open up your voice to share more about our
mission. So thank you. I wanna help a little bit. Well, you're
doing a great job. So thank you. And I would
(29:27):
also like to thank you as well for joining me and hope you
can make a difference in a child's life by calling the Make A Wish
Foundation. And, also, please send me your comments or any
story ideas you might have. Thank you.
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