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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, FEB. 24, 2019
BY MAYA HARRISON
Brooklyn is bursting with
wish grantors!
Big-hearted locals from
around the borough helped
a do-good group grant more
wishes of critically ill kiddos
in 2018 than ever before,
according to leaders
of the organization, who
cheered the Kings Countians
for their overwhelming
generosity.
“In 2017, we had a problem
where we didn’t have
enough grantors for the
kids awaiting wishes,”
said Brooklyn Make-AWish
Counsel Chairman
Khari Edwards. “Last
year we broke records,
now having more wish
granters than kids waiting.
It was amazing.”
Edwards joined the leadership
of the Make-A-Wish
Foundation’s local arm
about a year and a half ago.
And since then, the chairman
amped up the chapter’s
outreach in the borough,
and relocated the Make-AWish
training headquarters
from Manhattan to Borough
Hall — two changes he said
resulted in the program’s
recent success.
“Many think that the
Make-A-Wish Foundation
is a distant, multi-milliondollar,
non-profi t organization,”
Edwards said. “My
call to action was to educate
Brooklyn that it’s an
organization that anyone
can jump right into.”
The Brooklynites who
helped make the impossible
possible — whom the foundation
calls “wish granters”
— did so in two ways,
with some donating cash
to pay for the requests, and
others volunteering time
to help make the dreams
a reality by assisting kids
with fi ling the required paperwork
to request wishes,
and then planning out the
elaborate schemes using
funds from the foundation.
Many gave up their
weekends to grant the 2018
wishes — which spanned
a wide variety of interests,
including visits to Disney
World, and going on a glamorous
shopping spree, according
to Edwards.
“This borough is home,
and when you challenge
folks in Brooklyn to improve
the community,
they will follow through,”
he said. “There is nothing
like seeing the joy of a kid’s
smile when you give them
the opportunity to make a
wish. We had folks asking
to sign up from almost every
neighborhood.”
The chairman aspires
to even further increase
the number of Brooklyn
granters over the next year,
while continuing to highlight
the impact that Make-
A-Wish has on sick local
youngsters, he said.
“Think about someone
who doesn’t know if they
are going to see tomorrow,”
Edwards said. “Now think
about giving them the opportunity
to smile — that
will only take a few hours
WALKING THE CARPET: From left, youngsters Delancie, Molly, and
Stephanie were all smiles during the foundation’s 2019 Make-AWish
Day event. Photo by Trey Pentecost
out of your life.”
Edwards and other
Make-A-Wish leaders recently
toasted those locals
who helped the youngsters’
dreams come true at Downtown’s
City Point shopping
center during the foundation’s
third-annual Make-AWish
Day bash on Jan. 24,
the date Borough President
Adams dubbed “Brooklyn
Make-A-Wish Day” back in
2017.
Benevolent Kings
Brooklyn Make-A-Wish chapter grants record number
of kids’ requests with help from big-hearted residents