1. Adopt-A-Wish
The holiday season represents a magical time that enables people of all ages to believe in the power of turning wishes into reality.  It is also a time to reflect on the things that we have to be thankful for, especially the simple things in life that are often overlooked, such as our health.  National statistics estimate that this year 105 Idaho children will be diagnosed with an illness that will place their life in jeopardy.  Currently, there are boys and girls throughout the sate writing their holiday “Wish Lists” for toys, clothes, games and electronics.  Unfortunately, there are also numerous Idaho children simply wishing for just one more day.  At the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Idaho we are working hard this season as well as year-round to turn magical wishes into reality for children battling life-threatening medical conditions.  

You have the opportunity to assist the Foundation in granting local wishes by participating in the Adopt-A-Wish Campaign.  Everyone is invited to participate in this magical experience.  We encourage individuals, small businesses, large companies, retailers, restaurants, and schools to get involved.  This year, show your holiday spirit by giving back. 

As an Adopt-A-Wish sponsor we will assign you a local child and provide you with their story and picture.  The goal is to raise funds in an effort to grant the entire wish ($5,000) or to assist in granting the wish.  Through the campaign, the Make-A-Wish staff will help you create your own Web site to encourage support from your friends and family.  This is the perfect holiday gift that keeps giving. Click here for an example (put a link to Torene’s Friends and Family page.  Lacy is working on this with Torene). 

CBS Channel 2 will highlight one Adopt-A-Wish child every Monday during
November and December.  The stories will air during the morning broadcast.   
 
2. Moxie Java Coffee Sales (Moxie Java Flyer )

Click here to print an order form Moxie Java Order Form.
Calling all coffee lovers… this is the perfect holiday gift!  Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Idaho has partnered with Moxie Java to create four different coffee blends that each highlight a local wish. This is a one time offer that is only available November through December 2009.  Each individual bag is $10 or you can buy all four bags and receive a 10% discount.  The profits from each bag will assist the Foundation in granting wishes to local children.

Coffee Types:
- French Caramel- Highlighting Mitch’s wish to be a move producer. 
- Breakfast Blend- Highlighting Kolby’s wish to meet X-Game gold medalist, Paul Rodriguez.
- Sumatra-  Highlighting Bradley’s wish to go to Walt Disney World®
- Classic French Roast- Highlighting Laura’s wish to have a shopping spree.

Individuals are encouraged to either purchase or sale the coffee.  Click here to get started. All sales are final on December 5th.  Please submit your order by calling 208-345-9474 or emailing idaho@idaho.wish.org.  Or click here to print an order form Moxie Java Order Form.   
 

3. Macy’s Thanks for Sharing
Macy’s 2009 Thanks for Sharing program benefits the Make-A-Wish Foundation® and other charitable causes.

Macy’s Thanks for Sharing program has helped raise more than $50 million for charitable causes in just six years. With the public’s participation in Thanks for Sharing, Macy’s can increase that number and provide more support to the Make-A-Wish Foundation and other important causes.

Beginning September 19, 2009, for each Thanks for Sharing enrollment fee charged to a Macy’s Card, Macy’s will donate $10, up to a total of $15 million, to the Make-A-Wish Foundation and other charities.

In return, Macy’s cardholders will accumulate rewards equal to 10% of most of their Macy’s Card purchases, from their enrollment date until December 31, 2009.

To learn more, call 1-888-933-6229, visit macys.com/thanks or ask a Sales Associate at any Macy’s store.

Together, we can make a difference.

4. Macy’s Believe
Beginning on November 6, children across the country are invited to drop off their letters – stamped and addressed to Santa at the North Pole – in the Santa Mail letterbox at any Macy’s store.  For each letter received, Macy’s will donate $1 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation®, up to $1 million.  Together we can help collect a million reasons to Believe.

Celebrate the Season of Wishes

You can join the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Idaho in celebrating the spirit of holiday giving through the Season of Wishes campaign. Discover the many ways to share the power of a wish® with family and friends during the Season of Wishes .  The campaign begins November 1st and ends December 31st.  Local partners include; CBS Channel 2, KBOI radio, Macy’s and Moxie Java (list Julie’s sponsors as well.  Ask her the names of the TV and Radio sponsor).  The Idaho chapter is celebrating the Season of Wishes with these special events and programs:

1- Adopt A Wish
2- Macy’s Thanks for Sharing
3- Macy’s Believe
4- Moxie Java Coffee Sales
5- Hewlett Packard

Click HERE for more information.

Click here to register polarbearchallenge.kintera.org.

New this year: Visit Kodiak Grill after the plunge to warm up with a hot breakfast.  100% of the proceeds benefit Make-A-Wish Foundation of Idaho.

On January 1st, the Make-A-Wish Foundation^® annually hosts the Great Polar Bear Challenge at the Spring Shores Marina at Lucky Peak.  You can help raise money for Idaho children who are facing very difficult times going through treatment for their life-threatening illnesses and need the support of loving, caring individuals to carry them through these times.  Show your support for these special children by doing this heroic act and demonstrating that we all can brave adversity for the right cause. 

Warm up afterwards at the Kodiak grill with a yummy specialty breakfast!

For more information on how to participate, please contact Michele Larson at 208-345-9474 or mlarson@idaho.wish.org.

Click here to register polarbearchallenge.kintera.org.

Note: This is a family friendly event; therefore, alcohol is not permitted.

THANK YOU TO OUR EVENT SPONSORS:

UnitedHealthcare sponsored Zach’s wish as part of a national alliance with the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of America to support the foundation and its mission of granting the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions.

 

BY SEAN ELLIS
sellis@journalnet.com       
From the moment the 12-year-old was picked up in a limousine at the Ameritel Inn Tuesday morning, Telly was overwhelmed by the experience, which included spending $2,400 shopping at the Ridge Mall and ended with lunch at Chili’s. 

Chantelly “Telly” Westmoreland won’t soon forget her free shopping spree here, courtesy of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Idaho.

Each place she stopped at throughout her special day, Telly was treated like royalty. Though she clearly relished the opportunity, the Challis girl appeared shy and seemed blown away by the experience.

“I think it’s just totally awesome,” said her emotional mother, Michelle Westmoreland, who appeared just as happy as her daughter. “To see her so happy, my heart is overwhelmed right now.”

Telly, who recently had a kidney transplant, was given the opportunity to go somewhere, meet someone, be someone or have something. She narrowed her choices down to a shopping spree in Pocatello or meeting “Hannah Montana” star Miley Cyrus. Pocatello won.

She could have gone anywhere she wanted, said Make-A-Wish Foundation regional director Julie Thomas. The local business community responded by showering her with surprise gifts all along the way during her shopping spree.

When she arrived at the Ameritel Monday, a flower arrangement from Flowers by L D awaited her. Fred Meyer donated a pair of pearl earrings and a pearl bracelet. J.C. Penney paid the bill for her nail and hair makeover. Shopko presented her with a gift basket as well as dropping $100 from the price of a trampoline she chose.

“The business community has been wonderful; unexpectedly so,” Thomas said. “They’ve been fabulous   .”

Her day started with a limousine ride to J.C. Penney to have her nails and hair done. She then spent most of her allotted money at Shopko, before finishing it off at the clothing store Aeropostale at the mall.   The day ended with lunch at Chili’s, which she chose because “it just sounds so good.” 

 “She doesn’t like a lot of attention, so she kind of hides it and she pretends to be shy,” her mother said. “But she’s so excited. I think it’s a lot more than she expected it to be.”

“I’m like she is — I’m overwhelmed. This is fantastic. I never dreamed it would be this wonderful,” said Nancy Parker, Telly’s grandmother.

“This is Telly and she’s here to shop,” Thomas announced as the she walked into Shopko and was greeted by a “Welcome Chantelly” sign and 13 cheering   employees. A determined Telly wasted no time getting started and headed straight to the electronics department, where store employees presented her with a gift basket. It soon became apparent she knew exactly what she wanted.  

After seeing a 32-inch flat-screen TV with a builtin DVD player, she said, “I want this one,” with no hesitation. She said the television was her first choice “so my sister can’t yell at me for watching her TV.”

She then picked out a blue camera, the first of many items she chose that bore her favorite color.

Next was a Wii game system, along with Wii games and a Wii Fit, which allows players to do such things as exercise, skateboard and snowboard.  

She also picked out several Hannah Montana games and movies, as well as Hannah Montana sun glasses and a Hannah Montana tent.

Without missing a beat, she then headed over to the sports department, where she picked out a blue 21-speed Schwinn bicycle and a trampoline.

Finished with the bigticket items, she then announced, “I’m going to look at clothes now.”

She picked out an outfit of leggings with a baby doll shirt and when her mother showed her three pairs of jeans, she said excitedly, “Oh my gosh, I like all of them.”

Everyone accompanying her tried to get her to try on high heels, but she resisted. “I don’t want high heels. Why can’t I wear tennis shoes?” she said. But they persisted and she finally found some she liked.

When she exited the dressing room with her new outfit and wedge heels, she was clearly pleased. “I’ve actually never had an outfit before,” she said.  

Almost at her limit, she then headed to Aeropostale to pick up a few final items, including a zip-up hoodie jacket.

Her mother said the limousine “was like the biggest surprise in the whole wide world; she just smiled all the way down here.” When she picked up the pearl gifts at Fred Meyer, “she beamed.”

Thomas said granting the wishes of children with lifethreatening illnesses never gets old and seeing their excitement is very gratifying. “It’s something that words can’t explain. We try to make each wish as special as possible and that’s what makes it so fun.”

One of Telly’s wishes that Make-A-Wish couldn’t grant was her desire to have a new rifle she can use when she goes on her first deer hunt this fall. But the Idaho Department of Fish and Game’s regional supervisor, Mark Gamblin, said he would tap contacts in the local community “to see if someone can help her out.”

“Clearly, I would like to see her be able to do (that),” he said.

“Cool,” she said with a big smile when informed that Fish and Game would try to help grant that wish.

Pocatello won out. 

“When she found out Pocatello had a mall   … that’s all it took,” said Telly’s mother, Michelle Westmoreland. “She would spend all day long shopping for shoes and clothes if she could.” 

Telly’s wish will be granted Tuesday by the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Idaho. 

Telly, who recently had a kidney transplant, had four choices: to go somewhere, be someone, have something or meet someone. 

“She could go anywhere; it was her choice,” said Julie Thomas, Make-A-Wish of Idaho’s regional manager. “She chose to go on a shopping spree in Pocatello.” 

“She has herself all psyched up for Tuesday,” Michelle Westmoreland said. “She’s been looking forward to this the last two weeks.” She said the big items on her daughter’s shopping list include a bigger TV, trampoline, bicycle and game systems. 

Based on a formula used by the national Make-A-Wish group, Telly will get to spend about $2,400.   

She will spend Monday night at the AmeriTel Inn in Pocatello and will be picked up at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday by a limousine “to make her feel as special as possible,” Thomas said. Her first stop will be to J.C. Penney at the Pine Ridge Mall to have her nails and hair done.   

Then she will begin her shopping spree at the mall before continuing to T.J. Maxx. If there’s any money left over, she will visit other stores. Her wish will end with lunch at Chili’s. 

Make-A-Wish Foundation of Idaho granted 68 wishes in Idaho last year to children with lifethreatening illnesses. 

“These kids have been through so much; to be able to give them something that is their most heartfelt wish is fabulous; it’s heartwarming,” Thomas said. 

To donate to the group or to refer a child, call Thomas at 238-WISH (9474).