After writing a quick news article about the non-profit foundation, One Simple Wish, I knew I wanted to do more. I perused the site, being pulled to help with the variety of wishes—I wanted to grant every wish! But of course, that’s not an option for most of us. So, I thought I’d do the next best thing: Gather others like me who want to help, even if it’s with just a few small dollars. This led me to an email interview with Danielle—lover of kids, doer of good things.
Danielle understands people like me—we want to help, we want to change lives, but our resources are limited. Here’s what she has to say about that:
“Every little bit helps!!! I tell people all the time to give whatever they can. We often pool funds together to grant wishes that are larger than $200 and tend to wait longer on the site. And read the stories. You may at first see a wish for a $100 pair of shoes and think that is just too much but then when you read the child’s reasons or about their past you understand what this could really mean to them. The wishes are NOT stuff…they are a symbol of hope…a big, warm online hug telling our kids that they are loved.”
So, if we’re particularly touched by a wish that is out of our reach to fulfill, we can contribute what we have available, and someone will make up the difference! Through One Simple Wish, lives are being changed. For example:
“At 15-years-old, Demetria was struggling a lot with being bullied because of her teeth which protrude out of her mouth. She also has an ovarian syndrome that has prevented her from developing beyond that of a 10-year-old, so her appearance is something she is very self-conscious of. She made a wish for braces because they are not covered by Medicaid as they are not considered medically necessary.
Her words really touched me as she wrote a list of reasons why she wanted the braces with #1 being because ‘I get made fun of all the time.’ It broke my heart and I just wanted to fly out to see her and hug her tight and tell her she was beautiful. We have raised over $5,000 already and are working with an organization that provides nearly-free ortho care in hopes that we can get this done for as little as possible. When I see the community wrap their arms (virtually) around our kids who are in pain and feeling alone and like they don’t matter, I just get so filled with hope. There is way more goodness in this world than we know. We just have to look for it and then focus on it!”
But the lives-changing thing is sometimes even more literal:
“Nayomi! She came to an Aging Out Seminar at 17 in our Trenton office and made a simple wish for an internship here. She really impressed us all with her enthusiasm and charm, and so we brought her on our team. She traveled over 2 hours each way by mass transit to get here a few days a week while in school. Now, almost 4 years later, she is our Community Relations Manager. So wishes…they truly do change lives.”
If you haven’t already clicked the link, please do so now. Take an action to literally change the life of a child in foster care. And then invite others to do the same. Just imagine—if everyone reading this article contributed and shared it, before you know it, we’d have more grantors than wishes. Wouldn’t that make for a beautiful world!
