Nancy Townsend knows the deep-set desires of a child who is ailing and may not have long to live.
Bedridden with a life-threatening illness, there are the disturbing thoughts of the date and place when your time might run out, she said. There is the sad remembrance of the short time you`ve had, what could be if you have more time and the hope for much more.
But after awhile, Townsend said, there are the almost palpable wishes for simple pleasures-a ride on a bike, a trip to Disneyland, a face-to-face chat with best friends-wishes so strong, that you start to feel that if just one could come true, if only for a short time, then you could face the pain and withstand the frustration and accept what may be darker days ahead.
Townsend knows. Sitting beneath neon lights, between Grecian columns, in a throng of partygoers the other night, she whispered what may as well have been shouted: ”I had cancer when I was a kid,” she said.
But then she remembered that the trip she took with her uncle to Florida and the day that Pierre Pilote, then-captain of the Blackhawks, kissed and held her hand, ”was more of a help for my spirits and healing for my body than any `chemo` could have ever been. . . . That`s why I`m here,” said the Clarendon Hills homemaker, who attended the fundraiser for the Midwest chapter of A Special Wish Foundation Inc. Tuesday night.
There, at America`s Bar Chicago at a party that seemed to draw as many curious passersby as die-hard supporters of the cause, nearly 300 Halloween celebrants gave $10 each to the 3-year-old charity that grants about 35 wishes a year. Most of the wishes are simple enough, a puppy, a doll, a chance to see New Kids on the Block. Most of the recipients are leukemia and cancer patients at Children`s Memorial Hospital.
”I`ve been waiting for an opportunity for years to give back, and this is it,” said advertising executive Tom Perlitz, president of the foundation. ”To see the kids` faces and watch their eyes light up at such a terribly bad time in their lives is reason enough to do this. . . . That`s why I`m in the wish-granting business.”
It is mostly networking, Perlitz said, in a hard-sell for more volunteers. ”A lot of the time, you don`t give money, you just give of your services or call on someone who has a service that can help grant a wish.”
Wishes like that of 2-year-old Katie, who got her goldfish; and 10-year-old Nicholas, who got to see the Bears; and 11-year-old Kevin, who got to see his best friend. All were granted through the work of 20 Chicago-area volunteers from an array of backgrounds.
What unites them, Perlitz said, is the belief that every minute affects the next and that every time a sick child smiles he or she may be that much healthier.
”The stories I could tell you, would make you join us tomorrow,”
Perlitz said. ”Kids are an eternally worthy cause.”
It never failed. Approached with the question ”Why are you here?”, guests answered strong, whippet-quick and almost always the same.
”For the kiiiiids,” they would say with a frown. Their message was clear.
”I mean really, what sadder situation is there than a really sick kid who may die any moment,” said South Side production clerk Gloria Naylor, lighting a cigarette, the hot tip of which matched her dress. ”Somebody has to try to help them. . . . I looked around and figured, `Why not me?` ”
