{"id":62818,"date":"2025-12-16T23:50:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T23:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/62818\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T23:50:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T23:50:09","slug":"kids-get-inspiring-immersive-experiences-at-new-make-a-wish-headquarters-in-philadelphia-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/62818\/","title":{"rendered":"Kids get inspiring, immersive experiences at new Make-A-Wish headquarters in Philadelphia area"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/wish.org\/philadesv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Make-A-Wish Philly organization<\/a> has granted more than 8,000 wishes, and now there&#8217;s a new location where families can have an immersive experience.<\/p>\n<p>Olivia DeSimone and her parents visited the new Wishing Place, where the 13-year-old with epilepsy got a personalized welcome.<\/p>\n<p>The Wishing Place is the new Make-A-Wish headquarters in Bala Cynwyd, where children with critical illnesses and their families get a special experience to start their wish journeys.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s amazing,&#8221; said Olivia, whose wish was to go to Hawaii.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Anything that you can dream of, this is the place where dreams start to come true,&#8221; Make-A-Wish alum Derrick Goodenow said.<\/p>\n<p>Goodenow said having his wish \u2014 a trip to Disney \u2014 come true made his struggle with a neurological disorder easier to handle.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A wish can bring children joy and positivity and a new outlook when they&#8217;re dealing with very disruptive situations,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Jennifer Davis, president of Make-A-Wish Philadelphia, said all the kids get a backpack filled with toys in addition to having their wishes granted.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Vince and Lynn Leno Wishing Place \u2026 was designed with our kids in mind to make sure that it enriches their wish experience,&#8221; Davis said.<\/p>\n<p>At the wishing fountain, Olivia shares a new wish: to stop having seizures. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>She tossed a coin that says &#8220;hope begins here&#8221; into the fountain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Make-A-Wish Philly organization has granted more than 8,000 wishes, and now there&#8217;s a new location where families&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[29012,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-62818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-make-a-wish-foundation","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}