$1 MILLION IN FULFILLED WISHES
ABQ’s Legacy Church now largest church donor to the organization in the world
Legacy Church surpasses milestone in donations to Make-A-Wish New Mexico
You can grant a lot of wishes with a million bucks, and Legacy Church in Albuquerque has done just that.
Make-A-Wish New Mexico recently announced that the church surpassed the $1 million milestone in donations to the organization over the past 13 years. “Not only does this make Legacy Church the largest donor to Make-AWish New Mexico; +it makes Legacy the largest church donor in the world to MakeA-Wish,” said Danielle Rodriguez, program and outreach manager for Make-AWish New Mexico.
Make-A-Wish New Mexico granted nearly 100 wishes in 2017 and more than 2,000 since 1986, when the New Mexico chapter was established.
Over the course of more than a dozen years, 167 of those wishes were made possible by “the overwhelming generosity of the parishioners of Legacy Church,” Rodriguez said.
Within a two-week period during the Christmas holiday season, “the generous people of Legacy Church raised over $105,000 to grant 12 wishes to terminally ill and chronically ill children in New Mexico,” said Legacy Church senior pastor Steve Smothermon. “The heart of Legacy Church and its members is to show the love of our Heavenly Father to these children and their families.”
Make-A-Wish New Mexico has two other major fundraising events throughout the year that are spon-
sored by outside organizations, Rodriguez said. There is a golf tournament in Hobbs and a fishing tournament in Del Rio, Texas. The fishing tournament has raised more than $1 million over the years, but the proceeds are split between the Texas and New Mexico chapters, she said.
Make-A-Wish is an international organization that “creates life-changing wishes for children who have critical illnesses,” including terminal illnesses, Rodriguez said.
Wishes granted by the New Mexico chapter have included visits to Disneyland, a trip to Hawaii, construction of a treehouse, a meeting with the cast of TV’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” meeting superhero Spider-Man, a closeup encounter with penguins at Florida’s SeaWorld, a gift of puppies and ponies, shopping sprees, a week of training with Army Rangers, and being made an honorary member of the Albuquerque Police Department.
In New Mexico, the average cost of a wish was just under $10,000, involving about $5,400 in cash and another $4,300 in inkind donations, Rodriguez said.
The Make-A-Wish Foundation was founded in 1980 in Phoenix. There are now 64 chapters throughout the United States and chapters in 50 foreign countries on five continents, she said.