A veteran pilot finds his ticket to joy
Candy Puterbaugh
50plus Magazine
Six years ago, as a commercial airline pilot, Rick Kim got a life-changing view from the cockpit. He discovered he was helping make wishes come true by welcoming aboard critically-ill children and flying them out of the clouds to destinations of their dreams.
“The children would want to see the cockpit, try on my pilot’s cap, and see what it was like to sit in my seat,” Rick says. “After they left, I used to wonder what happened to them. I felt a pull in my heart to help them.”
As retirement neared, Rick knew where he wanted to land: at a colorful suite suite in downtown Portland where magic happened. There were no wands, potions or sleights of hand — just big hearts, helping hands and hope.
He became a volunteer with Make-A-Wish Oregon, our chapter of the national foundation that grants wishes to children ages 2½ through 18 in Oregon and SW Washington enduring life-threatening, progressive or malignant disease. The upbeat office is full of stuffed animals, toys, superhero costumes and smiles. Photos of wishes granted adorn one wall; another sparkles with 4,500 shining silver stars reflecting wishes granted since 1983 when the chapter opened.
Wishes vary as much as the ages and lives of the children.
“I wish to go to Disneyland.”
“I wish to meet a unicorn.”
“I wish for a Vizsla puppy.”
“We make sure every child that qualifies gets a wish,” says Laila Cook, the local chapter’s CEO of 10 years, who oversees a team of 18 employees, more than 400 volunteers and three interns. Her team works with doctors and nurses at children’s hospitals to identify eligible children. Each child is paired with two volunteers. Rick works nearly full-time with up to 10 families at a time.
“Two of us go to each home for two or three interviews,” he says. “We like to have the whole family there, try to put them at ease and get a feel for how it’s going with the family. If there’s a divorce, it gets tricky. A child might be shy. We break the ice with a favorite toy or food. We ask questions to find out what he or she would wish for.”
When a child once wished for a bedroom redo, Rick repainted walls.
“One child I worked with was having trouble with physical therapy,” Rick says. “After she made her wish to go to New York City, we told her she’d need to walk all over the city. Then she did her physical therapy!”
If a wish is out of reach, the staff works to come up with something close, like sending a child who wants to go to outer space to space camp. A child wishing for a new home might receive a camper.
Before the pandemic, Make-A-Wish Oregon granted 270 wishes in a single year. Over 80% of wishes involve travel, usually to Disneyland, Disney World, Hawaii or the San Diego Zoo. Trips include airport send-off and welcome-home parties and commemorative photo books.
Sometimes an out-of-state child will wish to visit Oregon. One dreamed of visiting Nike and designing his own shoes.
“Many children don’t know life outside of a hospital,” Laila says. “Parents are under incredible stress. Wishes do make a difference. After several surgeries, one child’s neurologist said medicine had done all it could for his seizures. After his wish was granted, the seizures stopped.”
Wish impact studies confirm what some doctors have seen: wishes granted make children feel better and sometimes even get better.
“There’s an attitude of ‘I will beat this!’” Laila says. “One dad said Doernbecher Children’s Hospital healed his son’s brain but Make-A-Wish healed his heart. It’s different for every child. Unfortunately, some kids die after their wish is granted. But that wish gives a family something beautiful to look back on. One mother remembered her daughter smiling on a beach in Hawaii instead of sick in her hospital room.”
“Many of these kids have a positive attitude about life,” says Rick. “A wish can make them more compliant with treatment.”
Having worked with hospitalized children in the past — and once wanting to be a psychiatrist — Rick loves where he’s landed after flying for 31 years. He cares so much about the mission that he has walked marathons to help support more wishes — three times!
“My mother and godmother were excellent role models of service,” Rick says. “At 99 my godmother sewed flower leis in Hawaii two weeks before she died. It’s a family of wonderful people here at Make-A-Wish. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for them or these kids. They put everything into perspective. I think I get more out of it than they do!”
100% of the work behind wishes comes from donations. There is a backlog of 400 children waiting for their wishes to be granted. To help visit www.oregon.wish.org.