Friday Features: Mississippi College Takes Make-A-Wish Giving to a New Level
By Chris Megginson
Since 2003, Division II Student-Athlete Advisory Committees (SAAC) across the nation have combined to raise more than $5 million for Make-A-Wish Foundation. Their efforts grant once-in-a-lifetime wishes for children age 2.5 to 18 with life-threatening medical conditions.
The Gulf South Conference has been part of that initiative and saw its total double in the last year, largely due to first-year full-time member Mississippi College in Clinton, Mississippi. The Choctaws accounted for 44 percent of the GSC’s nearly $44,000 total in 2016-17.
While attending the Gulf South Conference’s SAAC 2016 summer meetings, MC SAAC President
Andrew Moore, and his fellow SAAC members, were inspired to raise $10,000 to fund one wish for a child.
“To be able to grant a child a wish, especially someone with a life-threatening condition, that really motivated us, and the whole athletic department got behind that,” said Moore, a senior finance major and men’s soccer player from Huntsville, Alabama.
“We wanted to make a difference because we realized the platform that we had, and once a few of us bought into it and said we’re going to make this great, more people wanted to do the same,” said
Katie Reid, MC’s SAAC secretary and a senior women’s tennis player.
Moore and Reid were just two of the SAAC leaders leading the charge, joined by
Sanders Barrick,
Sydney Chandler,
Sydney Oliver,
David Fisher,
Chris Manning and
Darius Green.
When they learned their rival, Delta State University, led the state and GSC by raising $11,210 in 2015-16, and more than $19,500 the previous two years combined, the Choctaw student-athletes were challenged by Athletic Director
Mike Jones to beat DSU’s total and win the league.
They did.
Money poured in $2, $5 at a time. Before Mississippi College student-athletes knew it, they’d nearly doubled their original goal and raised $19,148.11 for Make-A-Wish Foundation of Mississippi. MC student-athletes presented their check to Make-A-Wish on Aug. 19. Following MC’s lead in the GSC fundraising totals were Lee University ($11,412) and Delta State University ($5,641).
“It just added up. We were amazed at how much improvement happened in one year,” said Reid, who is from Petal, Mississippi.
Fundraising ideas also poured in from MC coaches and student-athletes. Fans paid $2 a pop to see a hot dog and penguin play baseball at the inaugural MC Baseball Fall Festival. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Elvis, Spider-Man, the Super Mario Brothers and others also competed. Offensive linemen, averaging 6-foot-2, 300 pounds, peddled 200 T-shirts to Choctaw fans, bringing in $2,000. Student-athletes collected $5 per vehicle for parking at high school athletic events held on campus and collected donations at MC home events.
“I’m really proud of our student-athletes, coaches, staff and institution for being a part of this … Our kids jumped in there and worked, and worked, and worked. I thank all of our department and the institution, which bought in on it,” said Jones. “The energy, the enthusiasm and the work ethic to do it. Everybody was involved and I think that’s what excited me.”
By the time Make-A-Wish of Mississippi’s new development coordinator, Megan Ford, first caught word, MC had exceed its $10,000 goal in the first semester.
“I was floored … That’s huge in one year,” said Ford, a 2010 Mississippi College graduate. “There is very little time in a college student’s life to do philanthropy work, so or these student-athletes to raise that amount of money, they’ve put in a lot of hours outside of practice, games and school work.”
Ford, who has experience in the wish-granting side of Make-A-Wish, helped arrange a public wish reveal at the spring football game in April to send 14-year-old Riley Holland and his family to Hawaii.
Riley’s story
Two summers ago, Riley was a 12-year-old hoping to play football in the seventh grade. With a family history of heart trouble, a cardiologist appointment and echocardiogram became part of the preseason physical process. That’s when Liz Holland’s fear for her son came true.
“I’d been through several echos, and this was the first time the technician got up and left the room. I knew something was not okay,” Liz said.
The test showed a thickness on Riley’s heart, which led to a cardiac MRI and other tests to confirm the suspected diagnosis – asymmetric basal septal hypertrophy, better known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. In Riley’s case, the disease is hereditary. His grandmother was diagnosed five years before him and his uncle was diagnosed as a boy and died at age 20 in 1998.
At age 13, nine months to the day after his initial pediatrician appointment for the sports physical, Riley underwent surgery to implant a cardiac defibrillator, or ICD pacemaker, in April 2016. He will have to have his battery replaced every five years.
“It’s basically a Band-Aid to give enough time, if he were to have an arrhythmia, to get to the hospital to save his life,” Liz said.
Faced with learning a “new normal,” Riley has good days and bad days. Liz was aware of Make-A-Wish as a way to boost morale, but did not want Riley to participate at first.
“It’s a blessing beyond any means, but you don’t want to ever be in the situation where your child gets to make a wish,” she said. “I prayed about it, and I realized it’s not about me. It’s about him.”
Riley was interested and the process began. On April 7, 2017, the Holland family drove from Brandon, Mississippi to Clinton for a “Make-A-Wish event”. That’s all Riley knew. When they arrived at the Choctaws’ spring football game, he learned the event was for him and that the money raised by Mississippi College student-athletes was going to grant his wish to send him and his family to Hawaii.
“It’s amazing that they came together for me, just a random kid they didn’t know, and they raised the money for me to have a wish,” Riley said.
It’s a moment Andrew Moore and the others say they won’t forget.
“That was by far the best moment of the year – getting to meet him and hear his story and knowing how his life has been a challenge for him because of his condition,” Moore said. “We all have very able bodies as athletes so to help someone have some joy of life was an honor to all of us.”
Riley said he wanted to go to Hawaii because “it’s so perfect there and so beautiful. Why go somewhere else when you can go to this nice tropical island and watch something you might never get to see.”
Riley, his parents and two younger siblings, age 4 and 6, departed for Hawaii in July, nearly two years to the day his medical journey began. But that was the farthest thing from their mind once they arrived in Honolulu.
“I can’t even express what this trip did for us,” Liz said. “It was just us as a family to be us and not us at Batson (Children’s Hospital) or us with the cardiac kids. It was just a chance to breathe.”
Using MC’s raised funds, Make-A-Wish covered it all, according to Ford, paying for the airfare and baggage fees, resort stay, money for meals and souvenirs and helping arrange a moment for Riley to swim with dolphins – one of his favorite animals. Riley was also able to have another dream come true – seeing a sea turtle, which was not planned. One day from 21 stories up, Riley and Liz were able to see a sea turtle on the beach. It was so large they could see the patterns on the shell, while the people looked like ants.
“It gave a chance for a kid to just forget that he’s sick and go spend time with my family and be normal for a chance and not have to worry about the bad things going wrong,” Riley said.
Moore says seeing the photos from Riley’s trip has been uplifting and provides more motivation for SAAC leadership entering 2017-18.
Raising the goal
According to Ford, Mississippi College’s $19,148 total is expected to be in the Top 5 among all NCAA Division II institutions when the national numbers are released this fall and is going to impact other college organization fundraising efforts across Mississippi.
The total ended up allowing for three wishes to be granted – Riley’s and two other destination wishes to anonymous children in the Jackson, Mississippi metro area. Make-A-Wish of Mississippi grants about 100 wishes a year. There are four types of wishes: To Be, To Meet, To Go, To Have.
Now that the blueprint and structure are in place for success, Moore, who remains MC’s SAAC president, says the goals for the year began with sharing ideas with other GSC SAAC leaders at this summer’s meetings.
“The time our SAAC reps put into discussing Make-A-Wish partnership at our annual GSC SAAC retreat is a clear indication of how invested they are,” said Matt Wilson, GSC commissioner. “Mississippi College has embraced this opportunity to impact their community wholeheartedly and have become leaders in the efforts not only in the GSC but nation-wide.”
On campus, Mississippi College SAAC officers (Moore, Chandler, Reid, Barrick,
Paul Pratt and
Madison Girndt) hope to raise more than $20,000 as an athletic department and continue to increase awareness on campus and in the Clinton community.
“Now that we have a better connection with Make-A-Wish, it will put us on a bigger stage this year to do things and get involved in our community,” Moore said.
Reid says they’re already seeing an increase of awareness in the first weeks of school, receiving $100 in donations without an official ask.
“Our main thing is to raise awareness in the community. Clinton isn’t a huge town, but the fact that we raised this much is kind of saying if you really get invested, and get your community invested, it’s amazing the things you can do for Make-A-Wish.”
To learn more about Make-A-Wish of Mississippi, visit http://ms.wish.org/.
Follow Riley’s story at Facebook.com/PrayersForRiley03
Mississippi College Make-A-Wish Photo Gallieries: Photo Gallery 1 | Photo Gallery 2
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