Dvir Benedek

Dvir Benedek has had many roles on Israeli television, theatre and the big screen for over a quarter of a century; however, since he started his role as Make-A-Wish Israel’s Chairman of the Board, Dvir’s dedication has been one of the best roles of his life!

As a board member for the past three years, of which he has been the Chairman for the past 12 months, Dvir has arranged his schedule in order to attend all of the board meetings, occasional staff meetings, meet with wish children, corporations, potential donors and volunteers, to contribute his creativity, knowledge, experience and connections for the foundation.

Being one of the most famous Israeli actors in Israel, his connections and expertise have made a significant impact. This past year, Dvir introduced Make-A-Wish Israel to one of Israel’s top advertising firms to provide their services pro-bono with a state of the art PSA that will be made for Make-A-Wish Israel this year.

Dvir does not have the word "no" in his vocabulary; if he is able, he is there to MC events, host Wish Challenge Workshops and speak on talk shows on national television, the radio and wherever possible to raise awareness and promote MAW Israel.

Dvir also devotes a great deal of time with our CEO, Denise Bar-Aharon, to find ways to think out-of-the-box together.

His kindness and leadership to the other board members, staff volunteers and and wish families are an inspiration to everyone involved at Make-A-Wish Israel, and we believe over the next five years as the Chairman of the Board, the sky's the limit in being able to strengthen our brand and mission in Israel.

View the Video Here.

Leticia Santoyo

Leticia receives most of the phone calls that Make-A-Wish Mexico gets from its wish kids or their family members. We have rarely seen a person dealing with such patience, love, caring and kindness.

Her conversations with wish kids and their parents are examples of customer caring and customer service. We can only hope we all develop this same talent, and that all our people in all our offices respond in this way, everyday.

As of October 2017, she has also helped coordinating some of Make-A-Wish Mexico's local wish trips, and has been directly involved in the completion of 37 wishes (out of 128 to date) this year.

Javiera Suarez

Javiera is a journalist who has supported Make-A-Wish Chile for more than 10 years. Last year, she announced her cancer had relapsed. Even then, she continued to support us in events and social networks, and other foundations related to sick children. In fact, Javiera became an ambassador for Make-A-Wish Chile in April of this year. Her indomitable spirit makes her worthy of this recognition.

View the Video Here.

Francisco Perez Bannen

Francisco has been an ambassador for Make-A-Wish Chile since 2013. He is an outstanding actor in Chile, but that has not stopped him from supporting all Make-A-Wish events, both actively and actively in social networks. This year, he also participated in the Marathon of SANTIAGO. His team wore shirts stamped with the Make-A-Wish logo. It is our great inspiration to follow dreams.

View the Video Here.

Escuela Argentina de Automotores

Mario Enrique Ferreyra is a 17-year-old boy who suffers from a Hodgkin’s lymphoma; his wish was to have a scholarship in a mechanics school.

He is a fan of cars, and at his young age, he had already worked as a mechanic in several mechanical workshops so he could support his family. At the time he was diagnosed, he had to stop working to be able to treat his illness.

The Argentine Vehicle School gave him a full scholarship, so that he could fulfill his dream and also gave him all the necessary equipment so he could study. His wish was granted on April 6, 2018. Thank you, Argentine Vehicle School!

Sue Ding

Passion. Dedication. Compassion.

That’s Ms. Sue Ding. With limited marathon experience, this London-based lawyer recently ran the world’s toughest marathon to raise funds for Make-A-Wish Malaysia and another charity for stray dogs.

Just months before Marathon des Sable (MDS) in April, Sue suffered a stress fracture in her ankle while running another marathon. But nothing could stop Sue from helping to grant wishes.

Sue’s training was arduous, to say the least. She had to prepare for the punishing heat of the Sahara Desert, carrying only crucial provisions on her back while negotiating around sand and rocks. Sue endured some of the harshest conditions during her 250 km run in 6 days – pushing her body and mind to cope with heat and pain, while fighting back thoughts of giving up. Temperatures at the Sahara Desert rose to over 45 degrees with little humidity. Her only reward each day was the beautiful colours of sunsets over golden sands and the exotic plants and creatures she encountered. Every evening, Sue couldn’t wait to reach the designated points, remove her shoes and attend to the terrible sores and aches.

Sue’s determination is truly admirable; an inspiration to anyone healthy or sick. She showed that determination can defeat obstacles when you have kindness in your heart. Sue is the first Malaysian woman to have completed MDS, and her incredible effort brought over $15,000 (USD) for Make-A-Wish Malaysia.

Marc Soong

Make-A-Wish Philippines is very grateful and appreciative to Marc Soong, a selfless individual who has been giving his time, talents and treasures to the affiliate. He has been volunteering and granting wishes since his birthday in February 2017. This year, he has already granted 15 wishes, and all of them are very transformational.

He always goes an extra mile when granting wishes. A simple wish of a remote-controlled car was turned into the "best day ever" for the wish child, as Marc also let the child experience a ride in a Ferrari! Just recently, he became part of the wish journey for a wish child, and contributed a lot of ideas during the wish design. Then he was with us, alongside the wish child, during the wish anticipation activities up to the wish realization! Through his network of friends, he was able to connect Make-A-Wish Philippines to a lot of people, who in turn, now support the organization.

The Achievement Exhibition on Granting Wishes

Make-A-Wish Taiwan has collaborated with Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital for 15 years. We get together to care about children with critical illnesses and grant unique wishes for them to obtain the life-changing power of a wish. In addition, the Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital executes Holistic Health Care. It is very helpful to take care of children with critical illnesses and our wish children as well.

This year, we held an achievement exhibition on granting wishes of Make-A-Wish Taiwan in the hospital to deliver the joy and power to even more people.

We wanted to share the influence of granting wishes felt by the medical staff, not only the wish children and their families. They took part in the wish journey with selfless love and kindness. They really inspired us very much!

Hyun-Wook Cho

HW has been struggling with lesions in the brain since he was six months old. After going through rehab since then, his family received sad news. His doctor diagnosed HW with leukemia in May 2017. He was very much in need of people’s caring words during this time, as he was shocked with changes happening to his body, including hair loss.

HW’s one-true-wish was granted on August 1st at the baseball stadium. HW threw the opening pitch from his wheelchair, and he did it very well. Over 1,000 people in the stadium watched him toss the ball while holding boards saying, ‘Congrats on your wish day’ or ‘You can do it’ and the crowd’s cheerful echo brought him so much courage. HW’s wish day had a great impact on the community.

View the Video Here.

Tomas’s 8th Birthday

For his 8th birthday, Tomas decided to invite all his birthday guests (kids from his school, family and friends) to donate to Make-A-Wish. Tomas has a cousin living in the United States who already had a wish granted, so as his mother, Laura, told us, “Make-A-Wish is a very special and important foundation for our family."

Tomas then came to our office to give us the donations (75€). We gave Tomas and his mother a tour of the office and showed them some wishes that were granted.

Tomas is a great ambassador of Make-A-Wish’s mission, and his family participates in all Make-A-Wish Portugal events. He will attend to our Cycle-A-Wish by night this weekend.

We found Tomas' donation very inspirational and kind.

Paul Arcus

How long does it take to ride a bike across Canada in the name of charity? 32-year-old Paul Arcus found out first-hand. On June 1, 2018, Paul embarked on an epic coast-to-coast fundraising ride in Canada affectionately called, “The Wunder Wheels TransCanada in support of Make-A-Wish.”

Why Make-A-Wish? Paul, a native of Australia, knew a friend who had a wish granted by Make-A-Wish® Australia many years ago, and he saw the difference it made in his friend’s life. Eight years ago, Paul moved to Canada. Since he’s been here, the idea of a country-wide bike ride in support of Make-A-Wish has been on his mind.

Paul hoped to raise one dollar for every kilometre he rode (approximately 7,400) and budgeted 60 to 70 days to complete his solo journey from British Columbia to Newfoundland. Paul managed to complete the ride in 46 days and raise $18,000 for Make-A-Wish® Canada’s British Columbia and Yukon chapter.

As if cycling across Canada raising thousands of dollars for charity wasn't incredible enough, Paul said there is one moment he will never forget. When Paul was just two kilometres shy of Canada’s most easterly point at Cape Spear, Newfoundland, Paul’s girlfriend and parents were waiting for him to watch him cross the finish line. We heard through social media, phone calls to our chapter’s office and emails time and time again what an incredible ambassador we had in Paul representing our organization and our mission.

Wunder Wheels Total Stats:

10 provinces, 5 time zones

7,472.9km pedaled, 3,9548m climbed

307 hours 45 minutes in the saddle

10 Flat Tires

$18,075 raised for Make-A-Wish

News Footage:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/australian-cyclist-cape-spear-parents-surprise-1.4771652

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tv7wn6SOmw&feature=youtu.be&t=375

John, Wish Kid

"A little chapel in the courtyard of my house. I don’t want you to bring it to me. I want you to help me build it." His words were clear, his wish was unquestionable; and the organization of the wish… really challenging. It took 8 months, as well as a long and intense wish journey, until we got to that day when we delivered the chapel in Rhodes to our little 8-year-old John.

John ‘needed’ the chapel, as he wished to offer both to the local community and to us. On one hand, there is John, who lives in an unprivileged region of the island where the residents face many problems; on the other, there is Make-A-Wish, that won his heart from the first time he met us. He desperately wished to help through the granting of his wish in any way possible.

The chapel would become a place of prayer for all neighbors and the money gathered on the bell (church collection box)… would be donated to Make-A-Wish.

The little church, from the day it was handed over to John and the local community, is operating normally, having received all the legal permissions from the relative Greek authorities. John keeps its keys tight, even in his sleep, and every morning, he opens the church and makes sure everything is perfect for his guests. Until today, the donations from the church bell have already covered a wish of another child! And as John says, "You have not seen anything yet!" This church will enable many children like me to live their dream!"

View the Video Here.