The mission of the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranch is to “prevent delinquency and develop strong, lawful, resilient, and productive citizens who will make a positive contribution to our communities for years to come.” In other words, the Youth Ranch is a place for at-risk children to stay where they can learn important life skills to help them cope with the situations they are faced with.

My contact there was Thomas Combs and, after his representatives came and picked up our gift bank of toys, he called me as soon as the truck made it to their facility. He said that he rushed over to look for himself because he was so curious as to what we sent. He said that when he walked in, he was absolutely wowed by the sheer amount and quality of the products that we had given him. The one thing that really caught his eye was a giant stuffed panda.
He went on to tell me that the other day, they opened up a ‘sibling cottage’ for families to come and stay together and one of their youngest children that will be arriving is 4 and the giant panda would be a great ‘welcome’ gift. Thomas said that he was so happy and grateful for what we had given them that he just wanted to call us right away and thank us personally.

I was overjoyed when I heard his thanks. I felt so good. It made me happy and proud that we were able to help them out.

Jeannette
Programs Dept.

When Gary Burrell of Baltimore woke up on Friday the 13th, he may not have been expecting a terribly unlucky day, but he certainly was not expecting to have the amazing day he ended up experiencing. Although his morning started out normally in his job as a postal worker, he received a call in the afternoon that would change his life.

The seemingly innocuous phone call started with the caller asking Mr. Burrell if he had entered the 2011 Corvette Dream Giveaway, to which he responded that he had. On December 13th, Mr. Burrell made a $100 tax-deductible donation to national children’s charity Kids Wish Network after seeing advertisements for the Giveaway in various car magazines.

“In my spare time I enjoy reading car magazines as well as watching sports,” he said. “When I saw the ad for the 2011 Corvette Dream Giveaway, I thought I would enter and take a chance at winning.”

Now in its third year, the Corvette Dream Giveaway supports Kids Wish Network’s unique Hero of the Month program, which benefits thousands of children facing unfortunate circumstances and are in the care of hospitals, shelters and other care facilities nationwide. Through this program, young “Heroes” from these facilities are recognized and awarded each month for their bravery and courage in dealing with traumatic life-altering situations such as illnesses, homelessness or abuse.

“I knew even if I didn’t win, I would still be helping out a great cause,” said Mr. Burrell. “I like donating to charities and will continue to donate in the future.”

When the caller announced that Mr. Burrell was, in fact, the randomly selected winner out of thousands of entries for the 2011 Corvette Dream Giveaway, he was astonished into disbelief:

“I was both shocked and excited. It was hard to believe at first, but it is finally starting to sink in that this is really true.”

Both the 1963 Split Window Corvette Coupe and the one-of-a-kind 2011 Corvette Hero Edition ZR1, along with $50,000 in cash to help with the taxes, will be presented to Mr. Burrell during a special ceremony in Michigan later this year.

For both Mr. Burrell and the children for whom the proceeds from the popular Corvette Dream Giveaway will benefit, Friday, January 13th proved to be a very lucky day indeed.

—
Kids Wish Network is a nationally recognized charitable organization dedicated to infusing hope, creating happy memories, and improving the quality of life for children having experienced life-altering situations. For more information on Kids Wish Network, visit their website at www.kidswishnetwork.org

Corvette Dream Giveaway is a sweepstakes to benefit the children served by Kids Wish Network’s Hero program. For more information on the Corvette Dream Giveaway, visit their website at www.winthevettes.com

# # #

Dear Anna,

Respectfully,
William Palmisano Jr.
Executive Director
Mary Help of Christians Foundation Inc.

Alicia
Editorial Dept.

In fact, I just got one of these submitted by the parents of Kaylee, who suffered a very, VERY traumatic experience that started off like a seemingly normal stomach virus. I would like to share little Kaylee’s story with you now:

Kaylee, who was 5 yrs old at the time, came down with a low grade fever on a Sunday back in May of 2011. We gave her Motrin and sent her to bed. The next morning she could barely get out of bed, fever was 100.2 and we kept her home from school. She said she couldn’t walk to the bathroom without pain. We assumed she just had an awful stomach virus and by that night my husband called our Doctor and he wanted to see her first thing Tuesday morning. By this time she was throwing up all of Monday night.

Tuesday, we brought her to the office and her doctor said it was just a flu and sent us home. She acted a little better on the way home, even had the lollipop the nurse gave her. Tuesday night she felt awful and could only drink, not eat. We sent her to bed with more Motrin and a prescription nausea med the doctor gave her. Tuesday night, she had a high fever and was suffering terrible bouts of vomiting and other problems every hour. We called the doctor in the morning and he said he could prescribe something for the pain. We said no and that we were taking her to ER.

In the ER, we waited for about an hour and a half with my husband holding Kaylee. He later said that he was worried that he felt Kaylee slipping away. The ER staff took her in and put a nose tube in her right away and green mucus started pumping out of her. They were not concerned and thought it was a stomach flu. I begged them to do a scan of her tummy. They did and they couldn’t find anything – it was too dark in the area and they were thinking it was bile and bowel.

They kept her overnight and she was fading in and out. She was very bad and the drain that was in her nose that went to her tummy was draining dark green, almost black liquid. My doctor came to see her and was surprised to see how bad she was. He demanded that she get life-flighted to a Children’s Hospital that was two hours away.

Once there, they rushed her into surgery and 2 and half hours later it was confirmed her appendix burst and spread throughout her body. They took her intestines out and cleaned them and put them back before stitching her up. A few days later she went in again they didn’t get it all. They did this 3 more times, each in a different area. She had to have blood transfusions. She got pneumonia. She had a PIC tube placed in her arm. There were drains coming out of her tummy…she was a trooper the whole time.

She was finally able to leave the hospital 4 weeks later on her birthday. She is doing well now and it was to her excitement when the hospital chose her as a Hero. She really enjoyed shopping with her Walmart gift card after her final visit to her surgeon. Thank you, Kids Wish Network and a great big thanks to Janet Weiss Childrens Hospital in Danville, PA.

Hattie
Programs Dept.

Proud new parent, Beyonce Knowles, has assisted Kids Wish Network in granting some very special wishes. In 2011, the music icon met with Genysis, a teen from Georgia battling a blood disorder called sickle cell anemia. She attended a live concert in Central Park and was brought back stage for a meet-and-greet with her absolute favorite star. Beyonce also gave Genysis a gift bag, signed autographs, and posed for pictures.

Again, Kids Wish Network wishes to congratulate both Beyonce and Jay-Z and also send a very warm welcome to their new daughter, Blue Ivy Carter!

For some fun Kids Wish Network’s Celebrity Wishes visit: Celebrity Wish Wars

(source: http://www.eonline.com/news/happy_bday_beyonceacute_jay-z_welcome/284797)

Kristen
Editorial Dept.

We also reached out to the local branch of Easter Seals – a charity that “provides exceptional services, education, outreach, and advocacy so that people living with autism and other disabilities can live, learn, work and play in our communities” – who were in desperate need for their children this holiday season. In fact, they were even wondering if they would be able to provide for their families and children for the holidays this year, seeing how badly everyone was faring in this devastating economic slump. When we heard this, we jumped into action and sent 25,000 dollars worth of toys and gifts to the Easter Seals through the local FOX 13 Care Force toy drive. You can actually watch the video of our representatives JackLyn and Jeannette taking the toys to the toy drive below:

We were only too glad to help such a worthy local charity brighten the lives of children in need this holiday season and, when we came back for the New Year, we had a lovely Thank You in our inbox from Tracy Clouser, the Vice President of Development for Easter Seals Florida, saying that Easter Seals Florida “would not have had enough gifts without the items you gave us.” She also wanted to share the video that FOX 13 went out and made the day of their gift giving event – something that I would like to share with you now:

The gifts that keep on giving: MyFoxTAMPABAY.com

What a marvelous event and what a wonderful charity! We are honored that we were able to help Easter Seals Florida along with other local charities during this year of economic distress. It brings us immeasurable joy to be able to bring smiles to the faces of children nationwide.

Alicia
Editorial Department

There were pastries and coffee for everyone and our staff all decked themselves out in some fine, festive holiday hats to accentuate the holiday atmosphere, the volunteers from the local Wal-Mart Store #4669 were all ready to get toys packed into trucks…it was great. The most wonderful sight of all, however, were the pallets of toys and the wonderful children’s bicycles all packed and waiting for the right facility to claim them.

As the trucks from the facilities started to arrive, the Wal-Mart volunteers and our staff kicked into high gear to get everything going. I can honestly say that I have never seen such an amazing display of concentrated efficiency as exhibited by the joint effort of our warehouse crew and the awesome volunteers from Wal-Mart #4669. As soon as our guys brought a pallet of full boxes over to a waiting truck, the volunteers immediately unwrapped it and formed a pair of lines to hand the boxes into the truck to their guys waiting in there. Each pallet was packed securely in under 10 minutes. Incredible!

Wal-Mart’s “assembly line” in action

While their pallets were being packed, the facility representatives took the time to talk to us and thank us for the toys and gifts. They also delighted in telling us where the gifts were going to and who would be receiving them.

Angi and Estelle of Cavalry Chapel Worship Center with festive Sully

“With the economy so tight this year, we were stressed out about how we were going to reach out to families,” said Angi Magoulis of the Cavalry Chapel Worship Center. “When your organization called me, I started crying. It came at a perfect time. I was running down the hallways saying, ‘YES!’ We are completely blessed by you guys. We’re going to be able to, instead of give each child a toy, we’re going to be able to give need families a Christmas, so we’re very excited. You guys are a blessing and we appreciate you so much. Thank you.”

Karen Higgins of PARC with Sully

Karen Higgins of the Pinellas Association for Retarded Children (PARC) – an organization we reached out to last year as well – was excited to be back again this year:
“We have such a wonderful relationship with Kids Wish Network; we couldn’t wait to come and say thank you in person. Over 300 children have benefitted, including adults with developmental disabilities, from the wonderful gifts and donations. We can’t thank you enough.”

Even our volunteers were grateful to be a part of the event!

Laura (right) and a friend with Sully after ‘liking’ the KWN Facebook page

According to Laura of Wal-Mart store #4669, “I think it’s wonderful. It’s great that we can actually participate in giving the toys!”

To hear where the toys were going right from those who would soon be handing them out was absolutely humbling. Their thanks and praise for Kids Wish Network, our mission and our staff made us all blush a little bit more, but it also made us feel that much more honored to have been able to help this holiday season and all year round.

At the end of it all, we gathered the Wal-Mart volunteers to take a group photo and we were surprised by Rich Redder from the Wrigley Foundation, who brought out a large check for $1,000 and presented it to Anna, our Executive Director. She was flabbergasted (as we all were) and asked why. Rich said that he was the Operations Manager – U.S. East division for Wrigley and he had come all the way down from Rochester, NY to present the check to Anna. He also explained that Wrigley had all of the Wal-Mart stores participate in a contest to see who sold the most Wrigley products and the winner would get a $1,000 donation to give to their charity of choice. Apparently, the Pinellas market won and they picked Kids Wish Network! What a surprise! It was certainly the perfect end to an absolutely amazing day of giving.

Anna (center) with Rich (left) and the Wal-Mart #4669 crew

For all of their amazing work and generosity, we’d like to send out a HUGE thanks to the awesome people at Wal-Mart Store #4669. We’d also like to thank all of the facilities and their representatives who came from all over Florida to pick up the pallets of toys and Rich Redder for coming all the way down from NY to present the Wrigley check in person.

Alicia
Editorial Dept.

Happy Veteran's Day

It makes us even prouder to be able to provide toys and gifts for the U.S. Army’s Operation Toy Drop as well as Operation: Care and Comfort and Operation Military Kids, whose goal is to provide the children of service men and women with toys to help them temporarily relieve their loneliness, feelings of uncertainty and even the pain of the loss of a parent.

We are honored to be able to help our brave military and words simply cannot express how grateful we all are for the sacrifices you have made in defense of our great country.

JackLyn, Program Funding Specialist

As Kids Wish Network gears up for several upcoming On Tour events, JackLyn will be the initial contact for the cities’ offices. She will introduce Kids Wish Network’s service to local officials before the program coordinators take over.

“I am happy to be the one who helps people become aware that there is so much more that they can do to support their community,” says JackLyn. “People are always favorable toward the program, and I get to explain to them how they can support it.”

JackLyn loves having the opportunity to form these kinds of relationships, saying, “Whether I am contacting a large corporation or a small local business, I feel no hesitation in making the calls. Supporting at-risk children is a universally accepted and clearly worthy cause, and I continually receive positive responses and praise.”

JackLyn’s favorite part of her job, though, is being able to use her talents to give back to the communities on such a large scale. “It is exhilarating to see the continuous growth of the On Tour program and to be able to help support this wonderful cause.”

Kristen
Writer

Coming from a mother’s perspective, being a part of the event made her feel grateful for her own opportunities to shower her son with gifts. “It felt good to see kids the same age as my own son receiving toys and bikes. I can understand how times can get tough when you’re raising children and being a part of an event that helped kids who aren’t used to it was absolutely gratifying.”

This was Hattie’s first time traveling with KWN On Tour and she loved it. She actually got to see all of the work she has done come to fruition and meet many of the people with whom she’d been coordinating the event over the phone. She looks forward to her next event, when she will get to travel to Brownfield, TX. “It was great to meet all of the people and to see how everyone and everything came together to really make the event a special one!” Hattie got to meet Madisonville Police Chief Gregg Breeden, Sergeant Bill Bivins, Judge Ted Cagle, Miss Pre-Teen Tennessee, and all of the wonderful volunteers… but for Hattie, the greatness didn’t stop there: “I got to shoot the t-shirt gun!” she adds with excitement.

Hattie

“The whole event was great, but I absolutely had a blast shooting the t-shirt gun into the crowd of kids and their families!”

Overall, the Kids Wish Network On Tour event in Monroe County was a great experience for Hattie. Getting to be so close to such a caring community of people and the joy and happiness brought to children in need gave her a whole new perspective on her own role within Kids Wish Network! “I’m proud to be part of an organization that can do so much for children who have so little.”

Kristen
Writer