When 19-year-old Sophia Giorgi said she was thinking of volunteering to help the Make-A-Wish Foundation , nobody understood what she was talking about . But Sophia knew just how important Make-A-Wish could be because this special organization had helped to make a dream come true for one of her best friends . We were interested in finding out more , so we went along to meet Sophia and listen to what she had to say .
Sophia said that the previous year Make-A-Wish had helped her best friend, Andreas, who was seventeen years old and had been ill for a long time. "Andreas had always wanted to be a pilot, but he knew it probably wasn't possible because of his illness," explained Sophia. But, thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation in Arizona, Andreas had a brilliant day at the Air Base in Phoenix. He flew in a helicopter and learned all about war planes." Sophia said one of the pilots had spent a lot of time with Andreas, answering his questions and explaining things to him. Andreas certainly had a day to remember, and Make-A-Wish has helped over 144,000 children all over the world to live their dreams.
But what exactly is Make-A-Wish? Sophia told us that Make-A-Wish is a worldwide organization that started in the United States in 1980. "It's a charity that helps children who have got very serious, life-threatening illnesses. Make-A-Wish helps the children to feel happy even though they are sick, by making their wishes and dreams come true." Sophia explained.
We asked Sophia how Make-A-Wish had first started. She said it had all begun with a very sick young boy called Chris who had been dreaming for a long time of becoming a policeman. Sophia said lots of people had wanted to find a way to make Chris's dream come true - so, with everybody's help, Chris, only seven years old at the time, had been a policeman' for a day. "When people saw how delighted Chris was when his dream came true. they decided to try and help other sick children too, and that was the beginning of Make-A-Wish," explained Sophia.
When we asked Sophia if she could explain how Make-A-Wish worked, she told us the Foundation tries to give children and their families a special, happy time. "Sometimes it's hard for families with children who are really ill to enjoy themselves and laugh together. They often feel sad a lot of the time, said Sophia. "A Make-A-Wish volunteer visits the families and asks the child what they would wish for if they could have anything in the world." Sophia said the volunteers were important because they were the ones who helped to make the wishes come true. They do this either by providing things that are necessary, like plane tickets or equipment, or by raising money or helping out in whatever way they can.
We wondered what things the children wished for. Did a lot ol them want to meet somebody famous? Sophia agreed that a lot of children did ask to do this. But she said other children wanted to own something special or go somewhere, and some children like Chris, wanted to be a different person or do a different job for a day. "Whatever the child's wish is, Make-A-Wish tries to make it real for them," she said.
So. how did Sophia become a volunteer? She told us she had to call the Make-A-Wish office in Arizona to get some more information, She said she'd become a volunteer the following week and that she was glad to be doing something to help make children's wishes come true. Sophia suggested that other young people could also volunteer.
Make-A-Wish says that without the help of volunteers like Sophia they would not be able to perform these 'miracles' fo children. Why not see if there's something you can do to help?