FOREWORD   

IN APRIL 1980, I met a seven-year-old boy named Chris Greicius, who would change my life and, to date, the lives of more than two-hundred fifty thousand children worldwide.

Chris had leukemia and was not going to win his battle. At the time, I was a motorcycle officer with the Arizona Highway Patrol. When I learned that Chris had a wish to become a highway patrol motorcycle officer, like his heroes Ponch and John from the TV series CHIPS, I became part of a group of officers that would make his wish come true. We turned Chris into the first and only honorary Arizona Highway Patrol officer in the history of the patrol and presented him with a custom highway patrol uniform, complete with hat, badge, and his most prized possession, his uniform motorcycle wings.

While Chris’s wish came true, this little boy forgot about his illness, hospitals, and chemotherapy treatments. He once again became a typical seven-year-old boy, running, laughing, and hopping up and down with excitement. I remember the tears in his mother’s eyes as her son was having fun again, laughing and living, for the moment, like a child.

Chris passed away a few days after we granted his wish. After his passing, I couldn’t stop thinking of how happy Chris and his mother were during and after his wish. I knew that this happiness needed to be spread to other children with life-threatening illnesses, so I became involved with helping to start a nonprofit foundation that would make their wishes become true. In November 1980, the Make-A-Wish Foundation became official. The first official wish was granted in March 1981.

The stories included in this book will give you a firsthand look into the lives of eight “Wish” children and their families as they journey through a frightening world of doctors, hospitals, operations, and anxieties. You will feel the power of a simple question—“If you could have one wish, what would it be?”—and find inspiration in the answers.

You will learn how wishes granted by the foundation give both the children and their families a new focus as they reconnect and have fun together once again, forgetting about illnesses, doctors, and hospitals. Many children go into remission following the granting of their wish, a phenomenon that doctors cannot even explain; a phenomenon many believe can only come from the power of a wish. Not all children survive their illness, but many have lived for several months and years following their wish. All of this because of the Make-A-Wish Foundation and a seven-year-old boy named Chris, who inspired it all.

FRANK SHANKWITZ, COFOUNDER
MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION