Make-A-Wish & Hotondo Homes: My Fairy Tale Wish by Breanna
This week we have a special guest blog post from Breanna, who recently reflected on her experience as a wish recipient with Make-A-Wish Australia and the #WishForce.
Following a liver transplant, wish recipient Breanna had her wish to be an event manager granted in 2016. Together, with the tireless support of the #WishForce, Breanna hosted a magical fundraising ball raising money in support of other kids and teens fighting life-threatening illnesses. Hotondo Homes Ballarat were a part of this incredible wish, building and donating the wishing well for her event. Now in Year 10, Breanna came back to Make-A-Wish Australia for her work experience. As part of her experience, she reflected upon her wish and shared her expertise for planning a fundraising event.
How My Wish Came Together
My wish was to style and manage my very own event to help raise funds to support Make-A-Wish Australia. Styling events was something that I loved to do in hospital as I always found myself on Pinterest looking at ideas for my future birthdays and wedding. The idea of being able to style something while also supporting Make-A-Wish and all of the other kids that wanted wishes as great as mine granted was just a dream come true.
Make-A-Wish organised for me to work alongside The Style Co. who showed me how they run events and together we came up with the fairy tale theme. We then picked an element from different fairy tales to showcase at the event. For example, a red rose in a glass case as the table centrepiece inspired by Beauty and the Beast, a mini tree with red apples from Snow White, and there was even a Cinderella carriage photo booth!
Seeing it all come together was amazing. I was so used to looking at the plans, but to see it come together in real life was better than I ever would have imagined, everyone did such an amazing job helping pull my wish together!
I was so amazed by all the donations made by so many different companies! My dress was custom made, I had my makeup and hair professionally done, the foliage, balloons and lollies were donated and the wishing well was custom built and donated, thanks to Hotondo Homes Ballarat!
The event raised an incredible $118,000 for Make-A-Wish Australia and was far more than I ever would have thought. This is all thanks to everybody that came to spend this special night with me. I would just love to say a massive thank you to the Wish Force for making my wish come true better than I ever could have imagined, it was one of the best nights that I have ever had.
Breanna’s Top Five Tips for Planning an Event
1. Choose a theme: Begin by looking for ideas and themes that you would like for your event.
2. Get creative: Once you have finalised your theme start looking at different inspirational ideas that you could incorporate into your chosen theme.
3. The layout: Once you have your theme and inspiration, start to work out how the room or place is going to be orientated and where your decorations and anything else that you may need is going be situated.
4. Sourcing: Now you can start to create and bring all your ideas to life by outsourcing with event suppliers, or making them yourself.
5. Action! You can now decorate your space the way you’ve planned with all of your supplies and decorations.
Wish Effect
Wishes have an incredible and lasting effect on the lives of kids and teens fighting life-threatening illnesses, their families and wider communities. As you can see, the hope and joy of the wish lasts long after the moment itself!
If you’d like to know more about Hotondo Homes’ partnership with Make-A-Wish Australia, visit the Hotondo Homes website today. Alternatively, you can also donate to Make-A-Wish Australia via their website.
