{"id":383015,"date":"2026-07-22T22:26:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T22:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/383015\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T22:26:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T22:26:14","slug":"1-million-gift-helps-make-a-wish-north-texas-grant-more-wishes-for-critically-ill-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/383015\/","title":{"rendered":"$1 million gift helps Make-A-Wish North Texas grant more wishes for critically ill kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s just something magical inside the Make-A-Wish North Texas<\/a> office. It always feels like something special might happen. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“We get to be the good news when the good news isn’t really flowing,” said Kim Elenez, the President and CEO of Make-A-Wish North Texas.<\/p>\n

But on this day, the good news tap is open for four-year-old Bailey Wilson. \u00a0<\/p>\n

There hasn’t been much good news for the Wilsons for the last year or so. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“Last year in April, we found out through just a series of different hospital visits and that she was diagnosed with cancer,” said Brian Wilson, Bailey’s dad. “We had to go through 20 rounds of chemo and five different surgeries. And by we, it was Bailey.”<\/p>\n

That’s a lot for anyone, let alone a little girl. \u00a0<\/p>\n

But now, she’s cancer-free, and she’s about to go through another transformation from little girl to fairytale princess on her way to the happiest place on earth.<\/p>\n

After a scavenger hunt complete with a crown, magic wand and jewels led her to a secret castle, Bailey Wilson found out she was going to Disney World.<\/p>\n

That’s one wish for one princess, but just in North Texas alone, there are so many wishes that need to be granted. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“We have, if you can believe it, over 1,000 kids right here in North Texas waiting for their wish,” said Elenez.<\/p>\n

Lack of funding and other resources has created a backlog of wishes. It’s something Ryan Chismark wants to change.<\/p>\n

“My family foundation made a $1 million gift announcement last month to Make-A-Wish North Texas,” said Chismark, a Make-A-Wish North Texas board member and donor.<\/p>\n

He wants to make sure that more families like the Wilsons have their happily-ever-afters. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“Seeing it all happen and actually happen to our family and our little girl, it’s beyond words,” said Brian Wilson.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There’s just something magical inside the Make-A-Wish North Texas office. It always feels like something special might happen.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1242,7166,584,135141,430,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-383015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-allen","tag-disney","tag-health","tag-make-a-wish-foundation","tag-north-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}