Jacob Buhler, Oscar Portillo and Jace Hartman sold stars during lunch.

Katya Wagstaff
SJHS Staff Writer

The first wish granted by the Make-A-Wish Foundation was for Christopher James Greicius in Arizona.  Since that time, Make-A-Wish has grown to become a non-profit organization that has granted wishes all over the world.  Springville Junior High students have helped grant the wish of Jessenia, a seven-year-old girl who has ALL leukemia.  Jessenia wishes to go to Disneyworld and meet all the Disney princesses.

Students in the service learning class at SJHS, taught by Mrs. Diane Bird, are in charge of the Make-A-Wish fundraiser for Jessenia.  During lunch, stars can be purchased for a dollar each.  Each student puts their name on the star and places it on the wall, showing that they have donated.  If students donate $1,000, an SHS Student Council member, Josh Buhler, will have half of his body shaved.  Though the stars were a dollar each, any amount of money given was appreciated.  These stars were sold November second through the ninth.

The service learning students in charge of this fundraiser are Jace Hartman, Oscar Portillo, and Jacob Buhler.  Jacob Buhler and Oscar Portillo both feel that they have a bond with Jessenia even though they haven’t met her.  A ninth-grade student who has helped sell stars, Cami Sumsion, said, “Even though I don’t know her, I’ve come to love her.”

SJHS students aren’t the only ones donating money for Jessenia’s wish, Springville High and Mapleton Junior High are helping out too.  SJHS hopes that Josh gets shaved, and everyone can’t wait to see Jessenia’s wish come true!

The annual Make-a-Wish Carnival was held at Springville High School on Monday, November 9 from 6 to 8:30. This carnival helped raise money to make Jessenia’s wish come true. Jessenia has ALL Leukemia, and her wish is to go to Disneyworld and meet all of the Disney princesses.

This carnival had games like pie throwing, an ice cream eating contest, miniature golf, face painting, standing long jump, skateboard races and pin the tail on the devil. Springville Junior High’s service learning class had the chance to help out in some of the events. The events that service learning helped out were skateboard races and standing long jump. Participants sat on the skateboard and pushed off with plungers for the skateboard races. Then for the standing long jump people stood on a line and jumped as far as they could. The further participants jumped, the more candy they won.

Springville Junior High is hoping to raise $1,000 for Jessenia.  If they do, Josh Buhler, a member of the Springville High School student council, has volunteered to help motivate people to buying more stars by shaving half of his hair off. Mrs. Diane Bird, service learning and sewing teacher at SJHS, said, “It would really be nice to see Josh Buhler’s head shaven.” Haley Norman, a seventh grader here at Springville Junior High said that her favorite games were miniature golf and the face painting. Haley also said, “This was a really good way to earn money for Jessenia.”

Springville Junior and High school have been helping the Make a Wish Foundation this month. Springville Junior High helped out by selling paper stars with the students’ names on them and putting the stars in the hall at lunch. They sold them for a dollar each, and Springville High helped out by having a Family Fun Night on October 13th at SHS.

The Make a Wish Foundation is all about granting the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength, and joy.

The Springville High School family night was a big success, and a lot of families attended and had a great time. There were games, food, and the number one favorite, the Haunted Hall. All the money that was raised from the carnival is going to the Make a Wish Foundation.

“I believe that anything we can do to help a sick child is a wonderful thing. I believe that if we can make one wish come true, then they can have the optimism to fight any illness and believe they can survive it and that another wish might come true,” Mrs. Kathryn Crandall, a teacher at Springville Junior High, shared her personal feelings about the Make a Wish Foundation. Mrs. Crandall is one of those who helped with the Family Fun Night, along with SJHS students Ashli Averett and Cami Sumsion.

Thank you, Springville High and Springville Junior High for making a wish happen!

Reach for the stars and help make a wish come true. Make-A-wish is a company that chooses a sick child or person, and asks them if they could have one wish what it would be.

This year Make-A-Wish is granting a wish for Joseph, who has Marfan syndrome, and has had several heart surgeries including one just recently. Every year students at SJHS has the chance to bring one dollar and buy a star to help make a child’s wish become a reality.

Joseph is 12 years old and has Marfan syndrome, a condition that affects the connective tissue. The purpose of connective tissue is to hold the body together and provide a framework of growth and development. In Marfan syndrome, the connective tissue is defective and does not work properly. Marfan syndrome can affect many body systems, including the skeleton, eyes, heart and blood vessels, nervous system, skin and lungs.

Joseph’s wish is to go on a shopping spree. One of the things Joseph is looking forward to is getting a wii. He loves playing games; his favorite foods include pizza and brownies, and his favorite color is blue.