“They’re really providing a record number of wishes for us,” she said. Frances Hall, the chief mission advancement officer for Make-A-Wish America, said with travel possible again, the organization has been chipping away at the long waitlist for Disney. Wishes for new pets increased by almost a third.īut a lot of kids held out for that Disney trip. Some kids went for shopping sprees others were happy to get a puppy. Make-A-Wish had to encourage children to choose something else during the pandemic. “That, as you can imagine, was one kind of wish that was most impacted by the pandemic.” “More than half of our wishes are Disney wishes, and specifically also travel wishes,” Winter said. “That has been one of my dreams for a long time.”Ĭhris Winter, president and CEO of Make-A-Wish Eastern North Carolina, said there are more than 400 children in his region alone waiting for their “wish” to come true. “I was just like, I wanted to go to Disney World,” he said. “We had thought about it.”īut the prospect of changing his wish didn’t sit well with Cayden. “There were a lot of times we would get an email asking, ‘Hey, you guys still want to do this trip or do you want to change your wish?’” Kristen said.

He waited more than three years for his trip to Disney World in Florida. Cayden Terry, 11, visiting the Make-A-Wish Eastern North Carolina offices in Raleigh.

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