1) The document describes a project created by an employee of Save on Branson travel agency to grant a wish through Make-A-Wish to a family from Nebraska. 2) The employee proposed providing an all-inclusive vacation to Branson, Missouri for a family by obtaining donations from local theatres, hotels, attractions, and restaurants leveraging their existing connections. 3) The project was a success, providing a young boy with cancer and his family of six with a week-long donated vacation including hotel, meals, entertainment, souvenirs, and gas through extensive community support and media coverage of their story.

1. Make A Wish Project
Save on Branson is a well-known and reputable travel agency of the Ozarks. Our
company is known for putting together dream vacations and perfect getaways at reasonable
rates. I noticed that our company lacked more community involvement so I took the initiative to
brainstorm and come up with a project that would both take advantage of our company's
strengths and benefit a person or family in need. It came to mind that one of the greatest gifts
anyone could receive is a vacation of a lifetime with their family. Right away, Make A Wish (a
non-profit organization who grants wishes of all kinds to children with life threatening or
debilitating diseases) came to mind. I thought, wouldn't it be great to give one of these kids and
their family an all-inclusive vacation to Branson, Missouri? I had already networked and made
many many connections with the local theatres, performers, hotels, resorts, attractions, and
restaurants due to my role as a promotional writer for the company.
I began thinking that a lot of these nice people and companies would probably love to
donate tickets and vouchers to this family not only because it was a great cause but because it
would be free advertising and media exposure. Immediately I formed a plan to present to the
Director of Operations and the owner of Save on Branson. Within it, I laid out a skeleton
itinerary of a dream vacation in Branson and the steps I would take to make it happen and put
our company in the media spotlight at the same time. They loved the ideas I had and gave me
full authority to plan and coordinate the entire project.
As soon as I left the office, I contacted the Make A Wish Office of Missouri and offered
to them our proposal to grant a family in need of some real fun the vacation of a lifetime. They
immediately accepted our offer and within two days I was contacted by a Make A Wish director
informing me of the family and child we were to grant this wish to. The child was a young boy
(9) from Nebraska who was suffering from Neurblastoma (a sort of cancer of the nervous
system). His wish was to "go away where there are no doctors and ride go karts". Branson is the
go-kart capitol of the world. His wish was so simple. I knew we could grant this child's wish ten
times over. The Make A Wish representative let me know that it was in fact a family of six and
that they were under the impression that the foundation was only going to give them passes to
ride go-karts for a day locally. They had no idea what they were in for. I requested as much
information as possible on this kid- his hobbies, favorite color, dreams and wishes, things he
loves to do, favorite foods, etc.
After analyzing the data given back to me, I started contacting hotels, restaurants and
attractions for donations to this wonderful cause. Tons of gifts came flooding in to our office,
everything from 7 nights in a resort and meal vouchers to free tickets to Silver Dollar City and
mini-golf! T-shirts, mugs, and toys were given to this family at no cost to my company or myself.
More things than I ever imagined started collecting for this family. Two waterparks and three go
kart companies gave them free passes (the go-karts were actually made unlimited which was
incredibly generous). The way the community of Branson pulled together to give this special
family so much was very touching. I held a welcoming party and then a press conference (both

2. completely organized by me) complete with media coverage. Every news station, radio station,
new paper, journal and even the mayor showed up on those days to cover this family’s story
and their wish. The little boy was put all over the news! Save on Branson even hired a real
documentary film crew to follow the family around during some of their vacation to capture
footage of them having fun.
In all, this endeavor was a great success. Both the company and I achieved some of our
greatest moments throughout this journey. Their vacation (including car rental, spending
money, meals, entertainment, souvenirs, hotel stay and gas) was completely donated. Even the
food and balloons for our press conference were donated. In so little time, our community gave
so much to this family without even thinking twice about it, and for that I am beyond proud. We
were so blessed as individuals to be granted such a unique opportunity to give back. This was by
far my proudest moment both as a professional but also as a person.