If a sick child has a wish, we can make it come true. Do you know anyone we can help? | Opinion

There’s no particular reason you’d know Vanessa, Zuri, or John Paul, but chances are you know children like them. Kids with cancer, cystic fibrosis and other critical illnesses that they battle every day just to survive.

While COVID-19 is the most immediate threat to the largest number of the population, it isn’t the only thing that threatens the health and well-being of young people. Children in our community are being diagnosed and treated for other life-threatening diseases, enduring a seemingly endless number of doctor visits, procedures and hospital stays.

At Make-A-Wish® Southern Florida, a nonprofit organization that grants life-changing wishes for critically ill children, the hopes and dreams of these kids and their families are the fuel that drives our mission. And while COVID has forced us to become more resourceful about the wishes we can safely grant, it hasn’t changed the impact of an experience we know isn’t just a nice thing, but necessary for people at some of the worst times of their lives.

So, while puppies, online shopping sprees, virtual celebrity meet-and-greets and backyard playgrounds have largely replaced air travel and attending big events during the pandemic, the need to identify and reach kids and families that may qualify for our services goes on.

We make dreams comes true for medically eligible children at no cost or obligation to their families. For almost 40 years, throughout southern Florida, sick kids have “wished to be” (something), “wished to meet” (someone), “wished to go” (somewhere), “wished to have” (something) or “wished to give” (to a cause). More than 13,000 families have been directly impacted by our mission and countless others — volunteers, donors, event attendees, etc. — have felt the power of a wish. My predecessor, the late Nancy Strom, used to say, “Doctors provide the medicine, but Make-A-Wish brings the magic,” in reference to the hope, strength and joy the fulfillment of a child’s most heartfelt wish delivers.

The past 18 months have been challenging for all nonprofits. While we were granting more than 600 wishes annually before the pandemic, we’re now fulfilling about half as many during COVID. Some of that has to do with theme park trips and international travel being put on hold for the safety of immunocompromised kids, but we’ve also been affected by limited access to child-life specialists and social workers at visitor-restricted hospitals. Also, with more families utilizing telemedicine for doctor consults, there’s not the same opportunity for busy medical teams to share the Make-A-Wish mission. It’s meant a 30% decrease in referrals of children that could be eligible for our services.

And that’s where you can be a difference-maker.

In our quest to grant a wish for every medically eligible child in our region, which includes South Florida, the Treasure Coast, southwest Florida, the Sarasota area and Tampa Bay, we’re asking people to tell us about kids who might qualify to be wish recipients. Anyone with a detailed knowledge of a child’s medical situation can call (888) 773-WISH or visit https://wish.org/sfla to initiate the referral process.

Children must:

▪ be older 2½ and younger than 18 years of age.

▪ be diagnosed with a critical illness by a doctor.

▪ live or be treated in one of the 22 counties (or the U.S. Virgin Islands) in our territory.

▪ not have received a wish from another Make-A-Wish chapter or wish-granting organization.

Once a physician verifies the child has a disease or condition that qualifies for a wish, they will receive one. Contrary to what some may believe, a child does not have to be terminally ill to be wish-eligible.

Financially, our chapter is willing and able to grant more wishes, and we’ve never turned away a child for monetary reasons. Quite the opposite — we’re one of the few Make-A-Wish chapters in the United States that have helped other regions by underwriting the cost or taking on the responsibility of delivering wishes for children in their communities.

While you may not have known that Vanessa got to be a mermaid, Zuri enjoyed a dream vacation in the Florida Keys or that John Paul now snuggles a “furever” friend, that doesn’t mean you can’t be the genesis for the next child having their dreams come true.

Norman E. Wedderburn is president and CEO of Make-A-Wish Southern Florida.