For Liburdi, Disney trip still remembered fondly
Woman, 34, is now a Make-A-Wish employee
Jessica Liburdi, 34, remembers her childhood as a whirlwind of doctor visits and surgeries that made it difficult to enjoy being a kid.
“I had been in a constant battle dealing with a birth defect — I was born without an esophagus — and related complications that would end up requiring 11 major surgeries, rehabilitation, and numerous hospitalizations,” she said in an article she wrote on the MakeA-Wish Northeast New York
website.
At 6 years old, while she was being treated at Boston Children’s Hospital, two women greeted her from Make-A-Wish and asked if she had one wish, what it would be.
Initially, it was for her to visit her grandmother in North Carolina, since she did not get to travel much. Growing up in Latham with her condition did not leave many opportunities for much travel.
“Travel to me meant trips back and forth from Latham to Boston,” she said. “These out-of-state hospital stays would separate our family — most painfully me from my twin sister, Angela,” Liburdi said.
But when they asked her to think a little bit bigger, she came to one idea: a week at Disney World Resort with her family.
“Spending a week with my family, my sister, without medical treatments — and at Disney? I could not imagine. Yet these women were going to grant me my wish,” Liburdi said.
The experience made her feel grateful to have been supported by the team.
“I am beyond grateful for the social worker who referred me for my wish,” she said. “It provided my family with a respite from my family’s focus being my condition. We could focus on being a family.”
Now, she resides in Latham and has used her story as a platform to help more children by becoming the new manager of volunteer engagement at Make-A-Wish Northeast New York.
She is the first Wish
chapter alum to be hired by the organization later on in life.
“As a Wish child, volunteer and now staff member, Jessica embodies and embraces Make-A-Wish,” said chapter CEO William C. Trigg III. “Not only is she steeped in our culture and mission, but she has the relevant professional experience that will allow her to excel in her new role.”
She will succeed Ray Gawlak, who served in the position for about four years and recently left for a position outside of Make-A-Wish.
She was named the new manager on Jan. 31 and started work that day.
“The Make-A-Wish mission has always been close to my heart,” Liburdi said. “I look forward to working with our team of dedicated volunteers to help create joy for local wish kids and their families.”