Wish week is here! This year, Rocky gets the opportunity to support Aiden’s wish to go to Disneyland. The Rocky community always comes through and has provided enough money for the kids with a wish.
But have you ever wondered how this whole thing works? Where exactly is the money going? Is it going to Aiden’s Family, Disney, or some other party? Well, the short answer is that it’s going to Make a Wish Colorado.
“There’s a lot of misconception that we are giving funds to the family,” says Mrs. Nickel, assistant principal and the head of “Make a Wish Week” at Rocky. “The Make a Wish Foundation are the ones that make wishes come true.”
This means that while Rocky is supporting a good majority of Aiden’s wish there are other third parties.
Corporations or people will donate time, money, or resources to Make a Wish and they will find a wish that matches the donation. Make a Wish has partnerships with different companies, like Disney, or celebrities that donate tickets to the company. In fact, John Cena is the celebrity who has donated the most appearances.
“Disney, I would assume, is givingri` tickets,” Nickel added.
Rocky helps with the logistical part of the wish. With the money, Make a Wish can provide Aiden’s family with airfare, hotel rooms, and food, so Aiden’s family can get an all-expenses-paid trip.
The money collected is going to Make a Wish Colorado. Make a Wish is not just a week-long project. You can donate anytime for kids to get their wish. Make a Wish mixes and matches different donations that they receive to a kid’s wish and then fills in the gap with donations.
Rocky gets certain kids because their wish still needs money to get those plane tickets or hotel rooms. It hasn’t all been donated yet. That’s how we help.
Make a Wish has not always directly provided schools with a kid to support. It was COVID that boosted wish weeks in schools. Because people could not travel or leave their houses, Make a Wish was halted until kids could get what they wished for. However, they were still taking Wish requests during 2020, so when the world opened up again there was an extreme backlog of wishes and not enough donations. Make a Wish started reaching out to schools and Wish Week was born.
Rocky’s motivation goes deeper than helping a good cause. In 2019 Rocky had six students diagnosed with cancer.
“All six of those kids had a wish granted by Make a Wish,” Mrs. Nickel explained. “It felt like something we could give back.”
Rocky participates in Make a Wish not only to support kids with critical illnesses but to also honor those kids in 2019.
