Dakota Ridge High School is hosting their annual Wish Week during the week of February 5, 2024. The National Honors Society (NHS) has organized many fundraising opportunites throughout the week that will benefit the Make a Wish Foundation, all for the purpose of granting wishes for children with extreme medical conditions.
Schools all across the country have been participating in Wish Week, as it gives students a chance to broaden their perspectives and see some of the privileges they have. According to Make a Wish, Colorado has approximately 150 schools who have participated in the fundraising, and in the past few years these schools alone have raised more than $2.5 million.
“Wish Week is important because it’s helping raise money to give to kids who don’t have the same opportunity as us to experience things, so with a wish it lets them experience what they really want to,” NHS Treasurer Kordell Schneider said.
The officers and members of NHS have been working for months to come up with new ideas to encourage people to donate to the foundation. They have also been working alongside Student Government in organizing the Winter Dance, which is another opportunity for students to donate.
“For Wish Week, the planning has been exhaustive,” faculty adviser Tiffany Briggs said. “They started meeting right after Trick or Treat Street back in the fall, and then Student Government started to join them in December so they could plan the date for a winter dance. They are bringing the dance back this year, and that’s a culmination of Wish Week.”
There is also an assembly planned for the student body to learn what Wish Week is and why it is important. In 2022, the Make a Wish Foundation reached a new record of approximately 17,000 wishes granted around the world. The fundraising through high schools and businesses and organizations is what is allowing them to reach these new heights.
“Some of the big things that we are doing is, to start the week, we’re having Crush Cans, so you have the opportunity to send a can to a friend or somebody that you like a can of Crush Soda, and you get the option of a message with an extra donation,” Schneider said. “We are also doing Adopt a Duck, so if you give a donation, you get a rubber duck. We will also have a bake sale on Wednesday with the food made by our own catering class.”
Some kids wish to meet a celebrity, others wish to have their whole family go on a trip, and there are many other wishes kids make. The Make a Wish Foundation funds these wishes by providing things like plane tickets, hotel fees, or tickets to Disney. The whole point of this organization is to give kids the opportunity to look outside of their illness and become kids again.
While there are many different events NHS is offering to encourage people to donate, the important thing to remember is what Wish Week is really about. There are kids who are getting their childhoods stripped away from them, and raising money for the foundation provides an opportunity to help restore even a small part of those childhoods or give those children hope.
Consider donating what you can to the cause.
