On January 17th, during the Papillion La-Vista South Titans varsity basketball team’s highly anticipated match up against the Omaha Westside Warriors, Swishes for Wishes came during halftime to help receive funds and to also sponsor George to help with his illness. The Titans would go on to win against the Warriors 70-52, with Bryson Bahl contributing with 25 points and 15 rebounds, Levi Webb and Jayden Herrera with 11 points and Reece Kircher with 12 points and 6 assists.
Make-A-Wish is an organization and foundation dedicated to granting life-changing wishes to children with critical illnesses. Make-A-Wish gives these children the chance to experience something joyful and fulfilling during some of the toughest times of their lives. Abigail Weyermuller, lead officer of “Swishes for Wishes” talked about their goals for this year’s campaign.
“This year, we partnered with Make-A-Wish to sponsor a kid named George. He’s six years old and he has a terminal brain tumor. His wish is to go to Florida and see the beach, play putt-putt at this kid’s world of fun place and we wanted to help make that happen for him.”
“We’ve raised about $3,600 dollars so far. Our goal is about $5,000, we’ll have more events that’ll hopefully raise more money for that, some events for that are the daddy-daughter dance and selling roses for Valentine’s Day. Even if we don’t raise enough money, it’s not the end of the world if we don’t make it. Make-A-Wish is so much more than just high school sponsored, they definitely have the money and resources, we just try to help out. If we raise more than the required amount, the excess money would either get split up and back to the council (student council) or go to another Make-A-Wish kid.”
When asked about how this could affect the student body, “I hope it raises awareness because a lot of times, we’re in this ‘safe bubble’ and things like that don’t affect anything. Or people don’t really see how terrible it is for someone to have to deal with this and deal with growing up. So I think having people know about it is powerful and I hope it leads people to give more in the future because it’s not about anyone in particular, it’s about something bigger than oneself,” Weyermuller said. When asked about how this has affected Abigail, she says “Personally, I’ve lost family members before and it’s really cool getting to make something come true for somebody. I feel like it’s criminal that kids have to deal with cancer sometimes and things like that happen, so I think it’s really powerful and amazing to be able to do this for especially young kids. I met one lady during a game and her child had terminal cancer at a young age and they got to be apart of Make-A-Wish and she told me her story. It was pretty incredible how it’ll impact not only that kid’s life, but the family around them because going through cancer treatment can be really hard especially for someone really young.”
If you want to be involved in helping and making a difference, “If you’re in a club and you want to reach out to Make-A-Wish and do sponsoring for it, I know Make-A-Wish had websites and other resources and you can always donate wherever you want or just donate at the events that we have set up. I think we’ll raise awareness that some of the events we’re planning for this semester are also going to George.”
If you want to learn more about Swishes for Wishes, “We have our Student Council Resources like Ms. Dunn and Ms. Warrior. Otherwise, you could get the contacts of the student council officers and we can also help with that, but Make-A-Wish has their own website as well.”
