Maybe when a life-threatening illness strikes a fellow youngster in the community, children are more touched emotionally and want to help.
That is a theory many people have applied to the success of the Make-A-Wish Foundation's Kids for Wish Kids program, a national fund-raising drive for schools initiated by the foundation's Pittsburgh-based chapter a little more than a decade ago. Many suburban area districts participate in the program.
In this Make-A-Wish region alone — covering western Pennsylvania and southern West Virginia — about $384,000 was raised last year to grant the wishes of children with life-threatening diseases.
"It is kids raising money for kids, and children helping other children," Plum School District spokeswoman Dawn Check said.
Plum led the nation in fund raising for Make-A-Wish each of the last two years, according to the foundation. Plum raised $57,175 in 2000 and $72,877 in 2001, school officials said.
With the help of teachers at participating schools, students throughout the academic year conduct telethons, candy and baked goods sales and dance recitals to raise money. Often, the funds go to somebody the students know — children on the wish list frequently are from the same district or one nearby. That helps kindle compassion in the children raising the money, Check said.
"A lot of our efforts have benefitted our own students — we're raising money for our own in some cases," she said. "That has been particularly inspiring — you're not raising money for someone you don't know ."
Plum is one of many districts participating this year, with most activities occurring around the holidays. Although some schools do their fund raisers in the spring semester, activities often begin around the holiday season and culminate at the end of the fall semester.
Plum Senior High School, for instance, will host a live telethon Dec. 23 to showcase what each school in the district is doing for Make-A-Wish and how much money they have raised. Last week at the high school, female students bid on male volunteers in the Buy a Guy Auction, where winning bidders get a day's worth of help, including such benefits as having their books carried.
On Dec. 19, students at Oblock Junior High School will throw pies they bought for the fund-raiser in their favorite teachers' faces. Pivik Elementary School's volleyball tournament between teachers and the sixth grade is consistently a sellout, Check said.
The Make-A-Wish Foundation of Western Pennsylvania and Southern West Virginia started Kids for Wish Kids in 1989, and chapter officials expanded it to a national project in the early '90s, said Marcie Garger, director of donor relations for the local chapter in Pittsburgh.
The local Make-A-Wish chapter grants more than 500 wishes each year at an average cost of $3,400, and helped more children than any chapter in the country last year, Garger said. Wishes can range anywhere from a new puppy to meeting a celebrity to sending the child's family to Disney World — one of the foundation's most common wishes.
"It's a wonderful program for kids to help other kids," Garger said. "It spreads philanthropy to the next generation, teaches them the joy of giving."
| Make-A-Wish |
The Make-A-Wish Foundation, a national nonprofit organization, raises money to grant wishes of children age 17 and younger who have life-threatening illnesses. Anyone can refer a child to the foundation. To refer a child in the Pittsburgh region, call (412) 471-WISH.
