It’s an awful thing to think about, but I guess we’ll do it for the sake of this article.
What do sick kids ask for when they are granted a wish?
Meeting a celebrity? Disney World? Swimming with dolphins?
The possibilities really are endless, but that doesn’t mean the folks in charge can always make it happen…but sometimes they pull it off.
People on AskReddit shared stories about weird things that kids asked for AND received from the Make-A-Wish foundation.
Let’s check them out.
1. So cool.
“I was a chef at a fancy steakhouse in Jacksonville Florida.
One day my proprietor came to me and said this is Stacy the new girl she’ll be training with you. I look over and it’s this adorable little girl in bright pink chef coat. I babysat my little cousins at the time. .So I was actually pretty used to entertaining 10 year old girls at the time.
So I showed her the ropes, we made all kinds of stuff, that were on the surface kind of random, candied bacon, cornbread, prosciutto wrapped Boursin cheese stuffed asparagus, a sweet tea brined pork chop, a sorel garnish salad type thing and some other Cool garnishes.
We were having fun, I then made a purée out of the cornbread let her plate up the dish a few different ways to show how you can play with ingredients and height to showcase differnt parts of the dish. She had a blast. It was only at the end when the father came up to me In tears that I realized what was goin on. In the moment I was a little upset because nobody told me.
But I realized after it was for the best. I probably would not have been as bright and vibrant with the “lessons” had I of known. But it was a fulfilling experience for sure.
I hope their family is doing well. I have re worked and re ran the dish as a special a few times in memory of that day, it was that impactful.”
2. Fighting crime.
“To be Robin (not Batman.. he said he wasn’t ready for that).
Went on an epic adventure fighting crime with Batman.”
3. The sloth.
“I worked at a hospice and we had a wishing program. One of our patients, 24 year old with brain cancer, wanted to hold a sloth. Apparently, sloths are very nervous creatures, so it’s a little tricky to actually hold one.
I found a local company that does visits to schools and whatnot who had a sloth. Sloths only poop about once a week and the sloth could only travel the day after he p**ped (because they get nervous, any longer than that and the sloth has stress diarrhea).
So basically, we had to wait until the sloth pooped and then set up the visit for the next day. The sloth p**ped on Thanksgiving, so we set up the visit for the next morning. The patient was able to hold and pet a very sweet sloth. The patient d**d about three weeks later, and I am very happy I was able to help give her some joy in her final weeks.”
4. Awesome!
“I’m 14 and my buddy had leukemia.
He asked for a ride in a fighter jet and he somehow got it! I was surprised because the doctors said his bones were getting fragile and weaker and I thought the G force of the jet would hurt him, but he was fine and had a blast.
He’s doing better now and is scheduled out in about 3 months.”
5. Go team!
“To play football with “the red team”.
No pro or college preference – just had to be red.
USC made it happen.”
6. Make it happen.
“I worked at a LEGO retail store in the 2000s and Make-A-Wish approached us for a child with terminal Osteosarcoma who wanted to be in the store for a day.
LEGO unfortunately denied the request (which surprised myself and the rest of the staff because LEGO was a pretty great company). Staff decided to honor the request ourselves. We closed the store early on a Sunday, then invited the kid and family in.
He had a full run of the store, we collectively paid for like $1000 worth of toys for him to take home, and just spent the entire evening building w/e he wanted. He d**d a few months later.”
7. Think bigger!
“When my sister was 5 and I was 8, she had cancer and had the opportunity to make a wish.
When our mom and the make-a-wish person sat down with her, they told her she could wish for whatever she wanted.
She just kept saying she wanted macaroni. They kept saying “but it can be anything you want!”, yet she simply wanted macaroni and cheese.
After some strong encouragement to think bigger, and the make-a-wish person suggesting Disneyland, she chose to go to Disneyland.”
8. That’s cool.
“I helped host a visit to a planetarium by a kid whose wish was to go to the moon.
The front office folks thought I could just give her a personal tour of the planetarium and show her some nice high-resolution visuals, but I thought she deserved better than that.
I commissioned a jeweler friend and meteorite enthusiast to make a silver crescent moon necklace, which he graciously donated to the cause, and I donated a small lunar meteorite from my own collection. It was a gorgeous necklace very much to the credit of my friend’s artistry and generosity.
We couldn’t take her to the moon so we gave it to her instead. She was thrilled, but later said her real highlight of the trip was the astronaut ice cream. Ah, kids.”
9. Aim higher.
“Some of them were so extravagant and amazing.
Family vacations, celebrity meetings. And then I saw a 3 year old who wished for a banana split for breakfast.
And that’s what they gave him.
No one was like “wish higher.””
10. Back-up plan.
“My daughter was a Make A Wish kid. She asked to go to Australia to meet the Wiggles. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to travel that far (we live in the US) health wise.
She made a second wish, to meet Captain America. We never told Cap that he was a back up wish after the Wiggles were a no-go.”
11. That’s a new one.
“To be a “merman” (a boy mermaid).
He got a tail and swam in the giant tank with other mermaids at the aquarium.”
12. Awww.
“To be a “cool kid”.
Got a limo ride to the mall…red carpet entrance with cheering fans, signed autographs, shopping spree for clothes.
5 years-old.”
13. Awesome.
“There was that kid who wanted to work with the team designing D&D.
www.dndbeyond.com/posts/235-meet-d-ds-new-scariest-monster-in-mordenkainens
He spent a day working with them on their next release book and helping design a monster. Ended up suggesting a monster that was designed into one of the coolest monsters in the book.”
14. Pickles!
“There was a Make-a-Wish kid in a class I taught once and their wish was to tour a pickle factory.
Pickles were their all time favorite food and they wanted to see how the sausage was made so to speak.
Apparently Vlasic rose to the occasion in a major way and she had the time of her life.”
15. Survivor.
“After I survived cancer at 17, I was offered a wish.
I went to Christmas Island with my family to see the spawning of the red crabs – reckoned to be one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
Picture it, a million fist sized red land crabs making their way down to the sea edge to release their eggs into the ocean over a period of just three hours or so.
The make a wish volunteers looked horrified as I explained it.
And I’m typing this now, so yes, I lived, thanks.”
16. Really nice.
“When I was on a carrier they flew a kid and his parents out. They routinely fly distinguished visitors but we thought it was weird there was this kid.
They got tours and watched flight ops but he couldn’t fly with us so they asked us to have dinner with him so he could at least meet pilots and ask questions.
It was really humbling when we realized this is what he was there for, he literally wished to just come see what we do and hang it with us.”
17. Need some space.
“I’m a Wish Granter! My strangest personal wish was a refurbished 80’s camper so that she could have her own space (she couldn’t go out in public while her transplant was new-ish, and she was going crazy in the house with two younger siblings).
It was actually pretty cool, although the strange part was that MAW can’t actually use “used” things like that. So we had to get her a new VW camper (or something like that, it’s been a while) and “artfully” make it look vintage. So strange.”
18. Hollywood.
“One of my friends had leukemia in 8th grade and her Wish was to meet Adam Sandler.
So she got to spend the day on set of The Longest Yard with him.”
19. Beautiful.
“I went to high school with someone who’s youngest brother had some rare, terminal disease and he was at the end of it.
This kid was 10 and the thing he’s wanted to do since he was 5, was to be a train conductor and take trains all around the world.
With the help of make a wish and dome others,he was able to go and be a “conductor” for 6 of his last 8 months of life and he traveled all over the US. He seemed like he had so much fun.”
20. That’s cool.
“My cousin was a Make a Wish kid.
He loved golf, like had a scholarship to go play college, he loved it so much. He got to meet and play a round of golf with Payne Stewart.
Unfortunately, he d**d not too long after that. F**k cancer.”
21. The best day ever.
“A friend of mine is a K9 police officer.
He helped Make-A-Wish grant a wish to a set of twins with the d**dliest form of Cystic Fibrosis. Most of the time kids with CF aren’t allowed to be around others with it because of cross infecting bacteria. Them being twins shortens their life expectancy even more.
Well these 10 year old boys wanted to meet a police dog. My friend and some of his buddies upped the wish and during their meeting of his dog they got called to help solve three “crimes” in their town.
They pulled over a highjacker, found and arrested a robber and helped find a “missing” six year old (my friend’s nephew). The town police department gave them certificates and honorary police badges for their work. Around 200 people showed up to where they got their awards to cheer them on.
At their eleventh birthday they gave my friend a plaque they made with their dad thanking him for the best day ever.”
22. Crazy.
“I was a make a wish kid back in 2017 and my wish was to go see a live brain surgery, in Seattle at University of Washington.
I loved Grey’s Anatomy, I loved Dr Shepherd, and I had brain cancer so I wanted to see what the my doctors kind of saw, what an experience and learned so much. I was a little neurosurgeon for a day, and the neurosurgeon was playing The Pixies while operating.
What a great happy moment, I won’t forget. They even sent my family from Arizona to Seattle with me, to have dinner with me in the space Needle.”
23. Amazing.
“I was a Blackhawk pilot in the Army and we had a Make A Wish kid who wanted to fly in an Army helicopter.
We had to remove all the seats so we could strap his wheelchair down in the middle of the helicopter and we flew him around at treetop level yanking and banking with the doors open for awhile.”
24. Game on!
“My brother had cancer when we were in high school.
We all got to go to an ice skating rink in NYC and play hockey with some of the New York Rangers.
He was a Flyers fan, but what can you do…?”
Do you have any weird stories to add to this conversation?
If so, please talk to us in the comments.
Thanks in advance!
