For 11 children in the southwest, the Saskatchewan Children's Wish Foundation of Canada will help them make their dreams a reality.

The Saskatchewan Children's Wish Foundation of Canada is the only all-Canadian wish-granting charity dedicated to granting wishes to Canadian children between the ages of 3 and 17-years-old who have been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness.

Over three decades after the idea was created at a kitchen table, the foundation has helped gift nearly 25,000 children and their families a dream come true.

"It's a moment of joy and a fraction of distraction," Gay Anderson Provincial Director for Saskatchewan Children's Wish Foundation of Canada said. "A wish is really that moment that a child and family can take to be away from the disease, even if it's just for a moment."

The majority of those 11 wishes from the southwest are in the Swift Current area, but Anderson did acknowledge they're working on one for a child in Frontier and another for one in the Fox Valley area.

Provincially the Saskatchewan Children's Wish Foundation of Canada has seen an influx of wishes this year, as they're currently working on making 125 dreams come true for children throughout the province.

"Right now we're currently in a funding conundrum as we have the highest amount of wishes ever and had a very challenging year," she said. "We're just trying to promote and raise funds for the wishes we've already got that have been deemed eligible and we're now granting those wishes as those kids come forward with their special heartfelt wish."

The wish granting organization sponsored Saturday nights Swift Current Broncos game against the Saskatoon Blades in which the Broncos held a special pre-game ceremony. The foundation also received two cheques - one from the 2016 Zoe Greek Night in the amount of $36,600 and another from Southwest Saskatchewan Crop Production Services for $10,000.

The most common wish is a trip to Walt Disney World, but Anderson noted that with the new parks being added to Disneyland it's starting to be asked for more frequently.

"Our average for each wish is around the $10,000 mark, which is a bit of a scary number because it's very high," Anderson told Swift Current Online. "We have a lot of item wishes that are a lot lower than $10,000, but we have a lot of wishes that include travel. We include all family members directly related to the child under the same roof under the age of 21-years-old.

"For instance, a family of eight could cost far more than $10,000 to send them to a specific destination, whereas an item wish like an apple computer could cost far less than $10,000, so when I say $10,000 that's really the average."

Right now the Saskatchewan Children's Wish Foundation of Canada is averaging about 60 percent of their wishes being travel wishes, 35 percent for item wishes and the remaining being a celebrity wish.

For more information visit http://www.childrenswish.ca/home/ or email SK@childrenswish.ca

 

Photo credit: Darwin Knelsen