Thankful FGCU student pays it forward with Make-A-Wish Foundation
5 – minute read
When most people think about granting wishes, they might imagine a fairy godmother or a genie.
For some Southwest Florida families, that imagery is quite different — thanks to the Chi Omega sorority at Florida Gulf Coast University. Led by community service director Grace Lightbody, the chapter members volunteer with the Make-A-Wish Foundation to grant “wishes” for local children with critical illnesses.
Whether it’s going to a World Series game or visiting Disney World, every wish is a chance to “pay it forward,” according to Lightbody, a sophomore pre-nursing major who experienced her own illness and received her own wish through the foundation.
“I was a normal, active 9-year-old going to cheer practice four times a week and going to school every day, playing with friends,” Lightbody says, “and all of a sudden I was diagnosed with a brain tumor and in the hospital.”
Lightbody was diagnosed in 2013, and over the next year she had four surgeries that helped her heal and achieve remission by fall 2014. During that time, her family met employees from the Make-A-Wish Foundation who had one question for Lightbody: “What are the top three things you wish for?”
“My top three things were Hawaii, Hawaii, Hawaii,” Lightbody says with a laugh.
In November 2014, the Make-A-Wish Foundation sent Lightbody, her parents and her brother on a trip to the Hawaiian island of Kona. “We swam with dolphins, danced at a luau, had a Thanksgiving dinner and went on a volcano tour,” she recalls. “It was an incredible time. That trip was a pause from hospital life and brought us back to the real world where we were all together again.”
The feeling of togetherness that Lightbody’s family experienced is something the foundation strives for.
In an online survey Make-A-Wish conducted in 2021 among 3,021 parents of wish recipients, 95% of parents said the wish improved their family’s well-being, and 51% said their child increased their compliance with medical treatment after learning they would receive a wish.
According to its website, Make-A-Wish has granted hundreds of thousands of wishes since its founding in 1980. Lightbody calls her wish a “total blessing” for her family and now, 10 years later, she extends that blessing for Southwest Florida families.
For Chi Omega, she plans two large events a year to help raise money for Make-A-Wish and two “Wish Weeks” leading up to them filled with smaller fundraisers. According to Lightbody, $6,000 can fund a full wish. In the past year, her sorority has raised $10,000.
One of the things she appreciates about Make-A-Wish is how easy it is to see what their efforts accomplish compared to other charities. “A lot of places, they’re like ‘Oh, it’s going to such a good cause,’ but you don’t get to see the impact. With Make-A-Wish Foundation, you know where it’s going, you get to see it happen right in front of you.”
She also loves getting to meet local wish recipients. “I know what it feels like for a wish to be granted, and to know that’s how these kids are feeling brings back that full circle moment for me.”
Jessica Rhea, senior director of experiential learning and career development at FGCU, was surprised to learn about Lightbody’s personal connection to Make-A-Wish. But Rhea isn’t surprised by the dedication Lightbody has put into volunteering.
“She lights up a room,” Rhea says. “Her passion is contagious, and that’s why she’s such an asset to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.”
Rhea believes Lightbody is a perfect example of an FGCU student who is building her professional skill set through service-learning.
“Grace is not only getting to do something that she loves,” Rhea says, “she is gaining experience, gaining the professional skills employers are seeking, and making the professional connections, so that she is going to be a standout candidate when she is applying for her first professional position.”
Lightbody has seen the work have a meaningful impact on other students. At one of her fundraisers, a boy who was ill hung out with sorority and fraternity members at a basketball game. After he died this summer, the sentiments some of those students shared with her showed the impact he had on them, she says, just in a couple of hours at a basketball game.
After she graduates, Lightbody intends to keep paying her wish forward through continued volunteering, and through a career as a neonatal intensive care unit nurse. “Giving back to the community that saved my life has always been something I’ve been passionate about.”