Children's Wish Foundation of Canada

Children’s Wish Foundation of Canada can’t grant trips to the moon, but some 16,000 other wishes have been fulfilled in its 25-plus-year history. Its mandate is simple — kids aged three to 17 living in Canada who have been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness are granted a special wish as a means of lifting their spirits during painful symptoms and medical treatments.

And while there is no evidence to suggest that wishes granted impact children’s physical health, the mental health benefits are abundant and obvious, according to communications director Paul St. Germain.  “We have had countless testimonials about how much impact these wishes have had on the children,” he tells Samaritanmag from the organization’s headquarters in Pickering, ON.

Children’s Wish has a local chapter in every province and territory and is the largest and only all Canadian wish-granting organization in the country.

Wishes run the gamut from travel to meeting celebrities, but are sometimes much more complex. One child, for example, wished that his Edmonton-based grandparents lived closer to his home in Atlantic Canada. Children’s Wish moved them.