Make-a-Wish West Virginia in need of volunteers

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) — The Make-a-Wish Foundation’s West Virginia and Greater Pennsylvania chapter is asking for help as they currently face a shortage of volunteers, which has slowed down the process of providing wishes.

Regional Manager for the Northern West Virginia region, Vanessa Zweig, said volunteers are the ones that go out and meet with their wish kids and help the kids determine what their wishes are. They also serve as a go between the office and families.

“We need our volunteers to help us so that we can, you know, grant our wishes quickly, it’s slowing our process down, if we don’t have our volunteers that are able to meet with our wish families, and then our staff has to take the time and do that, so it just helps speed up our process and makes better wishes,” Zweig said.

The local chapter said it provides around 500 wishes a year to children all over West Virginia and some counties in Pennsylvania.

Make-a-Wish provides wishes to kids ages 2.5 years old to 17 but also grants wishes to 18-year-olds who have started the process before their 18th birthday. According to Zweig, the qualifying illnesses include but are not limited to cancer treated with chemo or radiation, uncontrolled motor seizures, transplants and chronic respiratory failure.

To become a volunteer, Zweig said you must be at least 21 years old and pass a background check. To learn more, you can go here.

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