Foundation Grants Wish

Rogers High School Students Celebrate Child's Battle

Max Rogers, 4, and his father, Brian Rogers, pose for photos Wednesday with Disney characters on at Rogers High School. Max, who has been diagnosed with leukemia, and his family were honored with a week trip to Walt Disney World through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The high school’s Deca group raised $5,000 to help pay for the wish.
Max Rogers, 4, and his father, Brian Rogers, pose for photos Wednesday with Disney characters on at Rogers High School. Max, who has been diagnosed with leukemia, and his family were honored with a week trip to Walt Disney World through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The high school’s Deca group raised $5,000 to help pay for the wish.

— Four-year-old Max Rogers got his wish this week.

He arrived at Rogers High School in a limo with a police escort. He was presented with a signed football, basketball and a baseball bat. He got a key to the city in a schoolwide assembly held just for him.

A thousand balloons fell from the ceiling and students cheered as they told him he was going to Walt Disney World.

In the middle of the applause, Brian Rogers leaned into his son’s ear.

“We’re going to Mickey Mouse’s house,” Rogers said.

That was Max’s wish.

Max and his family have battled acute lymphoblastic leukemia for the past year and a half. His treatment is now in a maintenance phase, his father said. All Max’s chemotherapy will be finished in November.

“He’s gonna make it,” Rogers told the assembly.

Fast Facts

Make-A-Wish Foundation

• Make-A-Wish Foundation serves children who have a life-threatening medical condition.

• There are 136 children on the Arkansas Make-A-Wish wait list; 30 of those are in Northwest Arkansas.

• Parents, the child or physicians can refer children into the program, but children are declared eligible by their physician.

• There are 85 schools in Arkansas that raised money through the Kids for Wish Kids program last year.

• Arkansas is in the Mid-South division of Make-A-Wish. To visit the website go to www.midsouth.wish.org

Source: Miranda Harbor, Make-A-Wish Foundation Mid-South

Max stood behind the podium looking up at students dressed as Tigger, Goofy, Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse. The trip itself marks a milestone in Max’s treatment, his father said.

The assembly was well done, said Lisa Day, a Make-A-Wish volunteer.

Other reveals she’s seen included a 12-year-old who played with the Razorbacks and a child who thought his parents were car shopping until they pulled the test-drive Camaro into a showroom filled with people.

“The sponsor really makes a huge difference in the reveal,” Day said.

Children in the program have fought life-threatening illnesses, but most are not terminal. The wish can be like a reward for sticking with treatment, Day said.

“This is the most amazing reveal I’ve ever seen,” she said.

This is the fourth year Rogers High School has partnered with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Students in Deca, a business club at the school, planned the celebration, recruited sponsors and raised money for the $5,000 wish and more for the festivities. On Tuesday, four classes used two air compressors to blow up balloons for the drop, stashing them until they could be rigged in the rafters after a home basketball game.

There was a dress rehearsal on Monday for the event. The Deca student leadership team met weekly for two months before school checking off who was responsible for what in a spreadsheet. Fundraising takes all year, but teaches the life-lesson of giving back, said Tom Woodruff, Deca sponsor.

The students love getting ready as much as the recipients love the attention, said Darby Miller, Deca member and senior at Rogers High School. The blueprint for the event is there, but it gets bigger each year, said Meredith Breach, Deca president.

“I don’t really know how a lot of it got started. We’re just making it bigger,” Breach said.

The effort encompasses more than the one club, student organizers said. Cheer squads worked out a special performance, the student body donated money and everyone was invited to the reveal.

Giving back to the community builds students into people who will do more than go out, earn a paycheck and go home, said Melanie Hewins, literacy facilitator at the school.

“We’re more than just studying books and taking tests, but we’re about educating the community and the whole child,” Hewins said. “It’s about who we are as people.”

Kennedy Wall, a junior, isn’t in the Deca club, but she was waiting on the sidewalk with a sign as the limo pulled up and Brian Rogers coaxed Max out. She is glad to be part of the school who granted his wish, Wall said.

Being able to give their gift directly to a Make-A-Wish child makes a huge impression on students, said Camdon Myers, a Deca volunteer.

As he was walking out of the gymnasium, the senior heard Max ask if they were really going to Disney World. His father told him “Yes, yes we are” and that is the moment he will remember, Myers said.

“That little moment right there just made it all worth it,” he said.

Upcoming Events