CHARLESTON, W.Va. — After just a month of fundraising, 41 wishes will be given to kids in West Virginia.
“That’s through the generosity of our customers coming into our stores a dollar at a time and the owners of convenience stores and grocery stores and all drivers throughout West Virginia making a difference in West Virginia,” said Jan Vineyard with the West Virginia Oil Marketers & Grocers Association.
At a news conference Thursday in Charleston, Vineyard handed a check worth $161,466 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
“It’s seems like when the economy is bad and things are tough and West Virginians step up and give more,” she said.
More than $90,000 was raised through the selling of wish stars at more than 600 OMEGA-member convenience and grocery stores across the state for one dollar in the month of August. In addition, tens of thousands of dollars was raised through a golf outing held at Stonewall Resort on Wednesday where many corporate sponsors made donations.
With the average wish being around $4,000, 41 wishes will be able be granted from the $161,466 raised in the statewide Make-A-Wish Campaign.
Vineyard said the most popular wish is Disney World, but otherwise the wishes vary greatly.
“I’ve seen children that want a computer, we had a little boy that was with us the other night that needed and wanted a service dog and that was his wish and shopping sprees,” she said. “I’ve seen kids want to have toys delivered to the children’s hospital on their behalf.”
In addition to the generosity of West Virginians, Vineyard said the store clerks played a big part in the campaign as well. She said one store in Parkersburg alone sold over 4,000 stars.
Vineyard said that every year she is amazed by the amount of money raised.