Make-A-Wish Wisconsin

Make-A-Wish® Wisconsin grants wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength, and joy.

During a long nighttime stakeout kneeling in some desert weeds in the spring of 1980, U.S. Customs Agent Tommy Austin tells Arizona Department of Public Safety Officer Ron Cox his problem. His wife's friend Linda has a small son named Chris Greicius who is probably going to die of leukemia. The seven-year-old boy yearns to be a police officer to catch bad guys with Austin. Running into bureaucratic hesitation at Customs, Austin asks Cox if maybe DPS can do something. I'll rent a helicopter myself if I have to, Austin says. Cox takes the request to DPS spokesman Allan Schmidt, who asks DPS Director Ralph Milstead. He gives Schmidt carte blanche to grant Chris' wish. Soon Austin receives a call from Chris' mom saying that she doesn't think he can hang on much longer. On April 29, Chris comes from Scottsdale Memorial Hospital to the empty lot by DPS at Lewis and 19th Avenue. There he and his parents are given a tour. That's when Lt. Col. Dick Schaefer gives the boy a Smokey Bear hat and one of his own old badges, and Chris becomes Arizona's first and only honorary DPS officer. From the time the two officers leave again, word spreads of their story, and they are amazed at how strangers are affected by it. They talk on the flight home of making this the beginning of something wonderful for children. Meanwhile in Phoenix, similar discussions are taking place. At an officer's retirement party, Shankwitz talks to Kathy McMorris, the wife of a DPS officer, about creating a wish-granting organization. That summer, a group of working-class DPS officers, friends and family gather. That meeting marks the beginning of Make-A-Wish.

Make-A-Wish serves children between the ages of 2 1/2 and 18 living with a life-threatening medical condition. Our goal is to provide children that are medically qualified with their one special wish.

Make-A-Wish Wisconsin has built a reputation of being a well-respected and fiscally-responsible nonprofit organization. We hold our reputation in high regard and continually strives to meet or exceed this. Since our founding in 1984, more than 5,200 children and their families throughout the state have experienced the transformative power of a wish. Last year alone, Make-A-Wish® Wisconsin granted a record-breaking 356 wishes.