Jayda Noyes, Daily Herald
A Hollywood themed evening in Prince Albert will have the spotlight shining on children with special wishes.
Make-A-Wish Saskatchewan is hosting An Evening with the Stars on Nov.17 at the Art Hauser Centre.
The event—which includes a dinner, dance and both a live and silent auction—will support 11 children’s wishes in the city, each of them with a life-threatening medical condition.
So far, four of them will be in attendance.
“That’s why we’re calling it ‘An Evening with the Stars,’ because in our eyes, the stars in our organization are the wish kids,” said Regional Manager Allyson Toye.
She said their goal is to raise enough for three wishes, which would amount to $30,000 as each wish costs an average of $10,000.
A few of the wishes are a trip to Disney World, going on a shopping spree and having a fishing boat.
“We hope to have 200 people there. Ticket sales are—they’re going. They’re not great, but they’re going and we still have a couple weeks left to promote it,” she said, adding about half the tickets have sold.
Anyone can purchase an individual ticket or tickets for a table of eight seats on www.eventbrite.ca.
Early bird tickets, which end on Oct. 31, cost $45 individually or $350 for eight plus a small fee. After Oct. 31, individual tickets cost $60 and tables of eight cost $480, also including a fee.
Ticket sales end on Nov. 10.
Toye said Make-A-Wish grants four types of wishes: I wish to go, I wish to meet, I wish to be and I wish to have.
About 60 per cent are travel wishes.
“I have the best job in the world,” said Toye. “I get to be part of their journey, their medical journey, and I get to bring them some happiness and joy into their lives being able to make their wishes come true. Pretty magical.”
The funds go towards wishes like Mason Gariepy’s.
He was 7-years-old when he wished to give a humanoid robot named ‘Nurse Mason’ to the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon.
Gariepy passed away from cancer before his family delivered the robot to the hospital’s pediatric unit last month, providing comfort to children during their medical procedures.
