40 Fun Facts About Make-A-Wish Foundation

Chris Greicius, whose wish inspired Make-A-Wish, wanted to be a motorcycle cop like the heroes of which TV show?

CHiPs made Ponch and Jon the idols of the seven-year-old, who had leukemia. Arizona state troopers gave him a uniform and a badge and made him an honorary patrolman.

Which WWE wrestler, a wish granter since 2002, holds the Guinness World Record for most Make-A-Wish wishes granted?

John Cena passed 650 wishes in 2022, when Guinness recognised the record. Make-A-Wish had already honoured him as the first person to reach 300.

Which California city turned into Gotham for a day in 2013 so a five-year-old leukemia survivor could be Batkid?

San Francisco drew thousands of volunteers after a Make-A-Wish email asked for a few hundred. The crowds cheered as Batkid rescued a woman tied to the cable car tracks.

Which entertainment company, part of the first official wish in 1981, features in about half of Make-A-Wish wishes?

Disney has been part of the story since 1981, when the first official wish kid visited Disneyland. Around three in four wishes involve travel of some kind.

After the first official Make-A-Wish wish in 1981, how did firemen enter Bopsy Salazar's third-floor hospital room?

Through the window, off the ladder of their own engine, is how the crew arrived, to the surprise of the boy's doctor. Seven-year-old Bopsy, an honorary member of that crew, died the same night.

Which widely assumed entry rule for a Make-A-Wish wish is a myth, according to the charity's own FAQ page?

Being terminally ill is not required. A child needs a critical illness, and Make-A-Wish says many of the children who qualify go on to lead healthy lives.

Which basketball great did Make-A-Wish name Chief Wish Ambassador in 2008, five years before his 200th wish?

Michael Jordan had raised more than $5 million for Make-A-Wish by 2019, on top of the wishes he granted in person.

A Minnesota teenager's 1996 wish to hunt which Alaskan animal put Make-A-Wish in the sights of animal-rights groups?

Kodiak bear was the teenager's choice. Safari Club International equipped the trip, the Humane Society asked for it to be withdrawn, and Make-A-Wish later stopped granting hunting wishes.

Until a swirl and star replaced it in 2000, the Make-A-Wish logo was built around which object that people wish on?

A wishbone was the logo until the swirl and star arrived. The change came in the same year that Make-A-Wish began serving every community in the United States.

For his 2013 Make-A-Wish day, Batkid rode with Batman in a black sports car, with bat logos, from which carmaker?

Lamborghini was the make of both 'Batmobiles', which carried the two heroes and the boy's family under police escort.

Make-A-Wish was founded in 1980 in which Arizona city, where its national office is still based?

Phoenix is where a group of state troopers, friends and family met in the summer of 1980 to start the charity. For months they kept its records and cash in envelopes.

Which wrestler, then the face of the WWF, was named the most requested celebrity of the 1980s for Make-A-Wish?

Hulk Hogan was a hero to children for most of that decade, after a role in Rocky III helped turn Hulkamania into a craze.

Which vehicle carried seven-year-old Chris Greicius to Arizona state police headquarters for his 1980 wish?

A helicopter collected the boy from hospital, and a patrol car and a motorbike were waiting for him when it landed. He left with a trooper's hat and a real badge.

Which US president granted the first presidential Make-A-Wish wish, to a girl named Amy?

Ronald Reagan granted Amy's wish in 1983, the same year the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America was incorporated as a national body.

Animal-rights campaigners once offered a wish kid a day on set with which James Bond actor instead of a trophy hunt?

Pierce Brosnan was filming in Idaho in 1996 when a Los Angeles group lined up the visit. By then the teenager was already out hunting in Alaska.

Make-A-Wish denies any part in a decades-old chain letter urging people to send what to British boy Craig Shergold?

Greeting cards reached him by the hundreds of millions, long after he had recovered from a brain tumour. Make-A-Wish says another charity granted his wish, and it recycles any mail it is sent.

Which Batman villain did Batkid stop from robbing a bank vault during his 2013 Make-A-Wish adventure?

The Riddler was played by a local actor and caught in the financial district. Batkid then chased down the Penguin, who had kidnapped a baseball team's mascot.

Besides a day as a fireman and a theme-park trip, the first official Make-A-Wish wish in 1981 included a ride in what?

A hot-air balloon was the third part of seven-year-old Bopsy Salazar's wish. The young charity, which had raised about $2,000 by then, chose to grant all three parts.

Which Arizona motorcycle patrolman and Make-A-Wish co-founder is the subject of the 2019 film Wish Man?

Frank Shankwitz led the police procession at the funeral of the boy whose wish started it all, then served as the charity's first president until 1984.

Linda Pauling, honoured by Make-A-Wish as a co-founder, was which relative of first wish child Chris Greicius?

His mother saw him receive a made-to-measure uniform days before he died. More than 40 years later she was guest of honour at a World Wish Day walk in Athens.

What insignia did Chris Greicius earn in 1980 by steering his battery-powered motorcycle through a course of cones?

Wings mark a qualified motorcycle officer, so a patrolman set up the test at the boy's house. A uniform shop had worked all night to make him an outfit in his size.

Make-A-Wish accepts wish referrals from medical staff, parents, family members and which fourth, more surprising party?

The child can put their own name forward. Make-A-Wish limits referrals to those four groups out of respect for families' privacy.

Which fundraising method has Make-A-Wish banned nationwide, warning that sound-alike charities use it?

Telemarketing is ruled out by a nationwide policy, along with door-to-door collecting. The charity's advice is to ask any caller to post more information instead.

Which Oscar-winning actress was announced in 2015 as producer and lead of a feature film about Batkid?

Julia Roberts planned to adapt the documentary Batkid Begins, which had its premiere at the Slamdance festival that same month.

Which Saturday Night Live cast member used her teenage Make-A-Wish wish to take her family to Hawaii?

Vanessa Bayer was diagnosed with leukemia at 15. She later built a sitcom, I Love That for You, loosely on her life as a childhood cancer survivor.

For World Wish Day, the 29 April anniversary of Chris Greicius's wish, landmarks have been lit in which colour?

Blue lights stand for the children still waiting for a wish. The day was first celebrated in 2010, thirty years after Arizona troopers made a sick boy one of their own.

Which loyalty reward, which never expires once donated, does Make-A-Wish ask supporters to give?

Airline miles are needed by the billion. Make-A-Wish estimates that covering every travel wish in a year would take more than 2.8 billion of them, or 50,000 round-trip tickets.

On which ESPN show does the yearly My Wish series pair Make-A-Wish kids with their favourite athletes?

SportsCenter has run the series as a week of reports narrated by Chris Connelly, a former MTV host and Rolling Stone music critic.

Which magazine's 1988 article on people who bring joy to sick kids gave Make-A-Wish international attention?

Reader's Digest ran the piece three years after a clip called Stephanie in the Snow had inspired a wave of new chapters across the United States.

Which fictional reporter got a byline in the Gotham City Chronicle, the special newspaper edition printed for Batkid?

Clark Kent shared the front page with his colleague Lois Lane, under a headline announcing that Batkid had saved the day.

Which Olympic figure-skating champion did Make-A-Wish name its first Celebrity Wish Granter of the Year in 1990?

Scott Hamilton received the title as Make-A-Wish marked its tenth birthday, by which point it had granted 10,000 wishes.

Kevin Sharp, later a country singer, met which record producer through Make-A-Wish as a teenage cancer patient?

David Foster became a friend and later introduced him to record-label scouts. Sharp went on to be named the charity's Wish Granter of the Year in 1997.

Hotelier Henri Landwirth's free rooms for Make-A-Wish children grew in 1986 into which nonprofit Florida resort?

Give Kids the World was his answer after one child died before a trip could be arranged. Each young guest leaves behind a star of their own, kept on display at the resort.

Make-A-Wish's very first donation, of $15, was handed to a co-founder by a person in which job?

A grocery store manager gave the money to the patrolman who became the first president. It was the following spring before the group had enough for an official wish.

A report on which TV network's news magazine jammed Arizona police phone lines with offers to help Make-A-Wish?

NBC sent a reporter for its show NBC Magazine, and millions saw the piece. The tiny charity could not handle the response at first, but new chapters soon opened in other states.

Where were two Arizona patrolmen when they first discussed the idea for Make-A-Wish, after Chris Greicius's funeral?

On the flight home, the pair were still struck by how strangers had reacted to the story. One of them raised the idea again at a colleague's retirement party, and the founders met that summer.

Which Los Angeles Lakers guard granted over 200 Make-A-Wish requests?

Kobe Bryant spent his entire 20-year career with the one team, and was the first guard in NBA history to play 20 seasons.

Which US president played himself in A Child's Wish, a TV film about a teenager whose wish is an Oval Office visit?

Bill Clinton made a cameo opposite Anna Chlumsky, who played the teenager. The 1997 drama draws on real families whose campaign helped pass the Family and Medical Leave Act.

Tommy Austin, the family friend who set Chris Greicius's 1980 wish in motion, was an agent of which federal body?

The Customs Service proved slow to help, so he put the problem to an Arizona trooper during a long night stakeout in the desert.

Chris Greicius, the boy behind Make-A-Wish, was buried with full police honours in which Midwestern state?

Illinois was a long way from Arizona, but two patrolmen made the journey to give the seven-year-old the ceremony of a fallen officer.