During Wish Week, the halls are decorated, community members cut their hair off, and the students cheer loudly for our designated Wish Kid. Everyone comes together as a community to raise money to grant a wish to our “Wish Kid” through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. As their website states, “Together, we create life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses.” These illnesses are life-altering, and Wish Week enables these kids to experience something positive amid their health struggles. 

The school community is able to support Make-A-Wish through the students who donate money to help the Make-A-Wish program give kids more of a chance to make their wish come true. Every year, our school raises tens of thousands of dollars while doing fun activities throughout the week, such as black light dodgeball tournament, the annual Walk for Wishes. We look forward to meeting our new “Wish Kid” each year, but some may not realize that we have a Wish Kid already among us. 

Jacob Thompson ‘23 was born with a congenital heart defect called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. 

“The left side of my heart didn’t work properly, so they had to do open heart surgery on it to make it work,” Thompson said. “They took half the heart out, the left side, because it didn’t work, so they took it out and now I have half a heart.”

 Jacob’s wish was to meet professional wrestlers. 

“I finally got my Wish March 4, 2020. I got to meet a bunch of wrestlers, and it was really fun, and I got front-row seats to the wrestling show that I went to for All Elite Wrestling,” Thompson said.

Some of the wrestlers that he got to meet include Cody Rhodes, Pac, Kenny Omega, Jon Moxly, MJF, Mark Quinn, Jimmy Havoc, The Young Bucks and Chris Jericho. 

“When I met him, Chris Jericho put me in a headlock and said, ‘What’s up, champ?’ Then I got to take a picture with him,” Thompson said. “I enjoyed meeting the wrestlers. They were really nice to me. I think Wish Week is cool. I like the overall experience.”