Make-A-Wish Tri-Counties is busy at work this summer granting wishes, with 45 percent of the 86 wishes expected to be granted this year will occur during the summer. If all 86 wishes are granted as scheduled, it will be the most wishes in a year in the history of the chapter.
Fourteen-year-old Frida of Santa Barbara lives a brain tumor and will be the center of attention on Aug. 3 at her shopping spree at the Oaks, in Thousand Oaks. Volunteer wish granters Karen Kerrigan and Liz Kleinfingher will accompany her on the shopping spree.
She will be shopping at Apple, Foot Locker, Macy’s, Charlotte Russe, Express, Hot Topic, Victoria’s Secret, JC Penney, PacSun and Papaya.
Many of the summer wishes are for travel, and there is a simple way the community can help. Make-A-Wish Tri-Counties is asking people to donate frequent flier miles to help grant wishes.
Through a special matching grant, the donated miles will be matched up to 1 million miles and will be used to send sick children from Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties and their families on wish trips. Make-A-Wish Tri-Counties still needs 450,000 more miles in the next 45 days to complete its matching miles campaign. Instead of turning in small balances of miles for magazines, passengers can donate miles — a gift that can make a real difference to kids with life-threatening medical conditions.
To donate, click here or call 805.676.9474 x4 by Aug. 31. Each year the chapter needs 8 million miles, but only 1 to 2 million are donated, making airline tickets the most avoidable expense for the small chapter.
— Shanna Wasson Taylor is the CEO of Make-A-Wish Tri-Counties.