NEWARK – Newark resident Brian Snow volunteered to help A Special Wish Foundation after his own daughter had a medical emergency at a very young age.
“The foundation purchased some bedroom furniture for her,” Snow recalled. “They granted that wish for us and I wanted to give back. I reached out afterwards and joined the board shortly thereafter.”
That was 18 years ago. Snow’s daughter recovered and recently graduated from high school. The Foundation continues to grant wishes for children with life-threatening medical conditions.
The COVID-19 pandemic created challenges for the foundation. The most popular destination patients request trips to is Disney World in Orlando, which was closed for nearly four months at the beginning of the pandemic.
The pandemic also made it more difficult for the Foundation to locate families in need, Snow said.
A Special Wish Foundation is headquartered in Columbus. The Newark chapter — of which Snow is now the executive director — focuses on Knox County residents 21 years old and younger with life-threatening illnesses who are not working with another wish-granting foundation.
“We will work with them and see if we can put together a wish that benefits the child,” Snow said.
Many children in Knox County with life-threatening illnesses go to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus.
“That’s an amazing hospital for kids,” Snow said. ”However, they have social workers there and people at the hospital from Make-A-Wish Foundation. Oftentimes, by the time we hear about a local kid in need of a wish, they’ve already started the wish process with Make-A-Wish.”
A Special Wish is currently regrouping with a plan to raise awareness in Knox County, he said.
“We’re certainly available to make wishes (happen) if we are contacted,” Snow said. “We just haven’t had the opportunity to do any recently.”
Funding is not the issue since the organization had a healthy fundraising effort before the pandemic.
“We are set and ready to make wishes happen; we just haven’t had any to do,” he said.
Over the years, the group has sponsored many special trips for young people.
“We had a teenage girl who was in love with the theater,” Snow said. “We were able to send her to New York City and a few Broadway plays.”
For another child, the foundation built a play set in the backyard.
“Sometimes the prognosis is not good at all, and this may be the one and only opportunity for the child to have any sense of normalcy at all,” Snow said. “We try to make it the best experience that they ever have.”
Granting wishes helps not only the children but their families as well, he added.
“These families have spent all of their free time at the hospital, going to the doctor’s office, traveling for treatment,” Snow said. “We’re giving them an opportunity to go on vacation, to have some fun.”
For more information, call 740-349-9474.
