Make a wish

[ten ocho recon scout]

Im sure everyone has heard of this charity. Has anyone ever browsed their site and read some of the stories? Im pretty emotionless in my salty old years, but some of these are tear jerkers. Great program.

http://wish.org/wishes/wish-stories/i-wish-to-be#sm.001btldvx19i9fsmu1c1f3fwddxbh

Really cool FDNY one in there somewhere. Not a wrestling fan,  but kudos to john cena

[Keener]

One of my good friends has a teenaged son who was a beneficiary of their work.  Thankfully, his outlook just keeps improving. 

The San Francisco Giants, specifically Hunter Pence, gained a huge measure of my respect with how they have treated him.  First class all the way.

As a fellow salty oldster, I couldn't agree more.

[Brandon]

Outside of the videos where the troops surprise their families, this is equally up there. ESPN does these every now and then with kids meeting athletes and what not. Definitely pulls at the heart strings and leaves a pretty profound effect.

[Glen]

Isn't John Cena the #1 guy in granting wishes and it isn't even close?  Helluva good dude.  That touches even my old bitter heart.

[ten ocho recon scout]

44 minutes ago, Glen said:

Isn't John Cena the #1 guy in granting wishes and it isn't even close?  Helluva good dude.  That touches even my old bitter heart.

Yeah, he just hit 500....thats pretty rad. From what ive read he generally goes well beyond a simple meet and greet.

Binge watched some videos of it earlier. Just about every one was really neat, and a tear jerker. 

Watched a cool one of kobe. Hung out with a kid for several hours at dave and busters, then took him somewhere to play basketball for a few hours. 

I read a story a while back about pujols. He was in houston (as a card) and read about some kid who was a cards fan, but couldnt make the game because of a brain tumor. So after the game, he took a cab to the hospital without telling anyone and gave the kid the bat he had just hit number 400 with...for all the grief we give him over his contract, pujols really is a good dude.

[ten ocho recon scout]

The cool thing in those vids too were how many kids didnt pick an athlete. A bunch wanted to be a soldier for the day (which i dug on). A bunch wanted super simple things, but cool to a kid. Like one wanted to see a wolverine up close. One wanted to go study insects and ended up getting a bug species named after him. 

Anyone hear of that one in san francisco, where they shut down a huge swath of the city and made the kid batman for a day? We did something similar down here a few years back. Was really cool.

[NJHalo]

When I was a kid, Doug Flutie used to live in my town when he played for the NJ Generals of the USFL. I will never forget what he did. There was a girl in our high school who had diabetes, and suddenly lost her sight. There was a fundraiser dinner/dance to help benefit this poor girl, and offset some of the families' debt. Doug found out about this and called the school to ask what he could do to help. Well. not only did Doug make a large donation, he called the family, and asked the girl to go to the dance as his date. He arrived in a limo to pick her up, presented her and her family with flowers, and was her escort for the night. Never got out to the press, but Doug was not looking for the attention or a pat on the back.

I had the privilege of playing a pick up basketball game against him, and he could not have been a nicer guy. He was a member of the community for a short time, but left a great impression on everyone he met. Hershel Walker lived in the same building, but kept to himself.

[Catwhoshatinthehat]

My mom's been working with Make A Wish for I don't know how many years.  There's a lot of athletes and famous people who work with the foundation regularly that you don't hear about because it's not on an ESPN special and they do it because they want to.  The irony is those are the ones most of us would appreciate most but we don't hear about it.  I'm sure there's some famous people out there regular folk think are selfish aholes and they're doing a lot off camera for foundations and charities.  

[ten ocho recon scout]

Cool story about flutie, nj.

And agree with cat. Ive seen or heard about a handful of guys over the years everyone hated, but were actually pretty good guys behind the scenes. A good chunk of them earn the prick rap, but theres some that would suprise.

I read that jordan is one of the top make a wish guys. Whats crazy is they said most of the kids whonrequest him were born after he retired.

[Tank]

as brandon mentioned, the special stories they do on espn are always very touching. i could watch those every day.

whether they do it in front of cameras or without any present, i greatly respect all the athletes and stars who get involved in these. it was a great idea that someone started, and it continues to be one today.

[mrwicked]

my wife and i do a lot of charity work for the bay area chapter. amazing, amazing group.

batkid was a blast. he saved the damsel in distress on the cable car lines right by my house, we all went out to watch.

the entire city was in on it and just totally went along. it was awesome!

 

[ten ocho recon scout]

Does the org mainly work on private donations from average joes, wicked, or do big companies donate a lot? I might donate skme airline miles or something, looks like a great charity

[mrwicked]

23 hours ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

Does the org mainly work on private donations from average joes, wicked, or do big companies donate a lot? I might donate skme airline miles or something, looks like a great charity

let me ask. 

most of times we participate via events as a good friend is on the board for the bay area young professionals advisory council. dinners and silent auctions and cocktail parties kind of thing.  

but i highly doubt they would turn down any kind of donation. they are fantastic. let me ask the cuter half she is connected to them.