Living within a community involves a lot of work: cooperation, perseverance, adaptability, and more. Regardless of such difficulties, few of us choose to live without community. I believe an ideal community is one in which everyone is committed to the well being of others. In Branksome Hall Asia, a newly-created student-led service gives hope to those children who don't have the same chances to play as many other kids do around the world. This club is called 'Branksome Make a Wish'.
 

The Branksome Make a Wish Club operates as a small community under the auspices of the American-based international 'Make a Wish' Foundation. Seven-year-old Chris Gracious dreamed of becoming a police officer. Although he wasn’t able to achieve this dream because of his leukemia, Chris was able to experience being a cop when an Arizonan officer let him “ride along” on the job for one day. This minor episode began the foundation back in 1980. Today, there are 36 Make a Wish clubs around the world, all of them working together to make the wishes of children with life-threatening medical illnesses come true.

 

Another example of the foundation at work comes in the story of Miles, a little boy with cancer who wanted to become a “Batkid.” For Miles, this foundation planned a project to decorate venues in San Francisco like Gotham, the home city of the Batman. On the day of the project, thousands of people came to cheer the “Batkid”: bringing hopes to not only Miles but also to other kids who have dreams they can’t achieve on their own.

 

Unlike other Make a Wish clubs, the Branksome Make a Wish club is a student-led. It was formed to include students ranging from grade 6 to grade12. Their most significant goal is to find creative ways to support children with cancer and rare muscular illnesses. As Branksome Make a Wish is working with the foundation, the ultimate goal is to grant children's wishes—in other words making their wish come true just like the name.

 

Recently, on March, the Branksome 'Make a Wish' club started its first project, which was to make a rolling paper for the kids with the life-threatening illnesses in the hospital in Jeju-Island, South Korea. They initiated two huge papers on the walls of the school so that students and faculties write encouraging and inspirational messages to the Wish kids. The entire process was filmed and then modified to create a time-lapse video to be shared with the school and Make a Wish community. The actual rolling papers will be sent to two children's cancer hospitals, one in Seoul and one in Jeju.
 

Jane Park, the leader of the Branksome Make a Wish Club, mentioned further plans for the rest of the year. The Branksome Make a Wish club will send meaningful gift packs by collaborating with neighboring schools in global education city in Jeju, including KIS and NLCS and create several educational videos about cancer, demonstrating virtual reality.

 

 

Min, Soyeon (Scarlet)

Grade 11

Branksome Hall Asia