Behind The Wish: Dave Ford

I am 55, married to Janeen and I have a 22-year-old son Dylan. I am involved in a lot of volunteering, so not just Make-A-Wish.

That all had its beginnings almost 15 years ago when my son was about 10 and said, ‘I want to do something, let’s go play cricket’ and I said, ‘Yeah sure mate’.

I have never been a dad that sits on the sidelines, so in his first time playing competitive cricket I had to get out on the field because I am an involved kind of dad.

It was about 13 years of cricket involvement. As with everything, I dived in feet first so I started off as team manager, became a coach, got on the club committee and became secretary and vice-president.

I went to the district level and was secretary and vice-president there.

Dylan stopped about age 15 because as kids do, they find other things are more important. But I went for another five years even though I had no child at the club.

I really enjoyed helping the kids, coaching them, and watching them grow.

Picture: David with son Dylan during his cricket career.

I have been President of the Brisbane South Branch for over four years. My second term ended just recently.

I joined Make-A-Wish in September 2019 and about three months in I thought I would be interested in an office bearer role because of my experience, not just at work, but I had done committee positions as part of cricket.

I talked to the President and said, ‘You don’t have a vice-president, maybe I could take on the VP role and be mentored by the President so I know how everything works and then I might consider stepping up when the President steps down.'

But it didn’t work like that. About three weeks later he said he was moving Branches and ‘Congratulations, it’s all yours’.

It was a steep learning curve on Make-A-Wish policies and organisational matters.

I was to find out a Make-A-Wish President does a lot of management and strategic work.

It was a case of feet to the fire and learn quickly.

I would have to characterize my first term as extremely challenging because of COVID.

Also, a split of the Brisbane Branches was planned.

So the Brisbane South Branch split into three: Ipswich, Logan and Brisbane City South. There was a lot of work to get that across the line over many months.

I would have to say it was a really hectic time.

Around the time of COVID, a lot of the long-time members left the Branch so I was left with a Branch that needed an influx of new people.

And some of those that were still in the Branch weren’t perhaps overly engaged given the slowdown because of COVID.

I made a deliberate decision to recruit younger volunteers. People in their 20s. And that was because I suspected younger members may bring energy and enthusiasm and participate in social activities.

You need volunteers who want to get together socially and want to get along with each other which makes them better able to support each other, the Branch, and Make-A-Wish goals.

It's taken a while. You also do need some experience for the office bearer positions.

I would have to say it has worked out well. We used to have four people turn up in person to meetings. I can even remember sitting in the meeting room by myself a couple of times.

We have about 20 in the Branch now, and have got to the stage where 12 are turning up and another four or so online. So that’s 75pc of the Branch, which tells me we have got the engagement.

Make-A-Wish is a rare kind of volunteering. It’s not sort of walk in, walk out, whenever you feel like it. It’s important that our volunteers always keep wish families front of mind.

I am very proactive from the wish capture onwards. I am a little bit of a closet travel agent. I get into that during the wishes.

Whatever wish it is, I will say, ‘Stay here’ or ‘Fly here’ or ‘Go snorkelling with this mob’. I will plan out the wish when putting together the home visit report.

For example, I’m a scuba diver, so that kind of thing is within my realm, so I’ll recommend who to go with.

I think it’s helpful for head office. Rather than just saying, ‘The family wants a holiday in Cairns’ I can give them more detail.

I will go the extra mile.

I now have a formulaic snow wish that I’ll do. It involves me baking snowflake cookies.

I’ll go to their place with snowflake balloons, a cake, and dry ice to simulate fog and set it all up.

I’ll source stuff, within budget and Make-A-Wish guidelines, to enhance the wish. A girl had a great white shark wish. She is dead keen to be a marine biologist when she grows up.

So, I got in touch with a female marine biologist who was working in Perth and arranged a Zoom with the wish child as part of the Anticipation phase. I find extras where I can.

I really want to enhance the experience for the child and make it really special and as ‘wow’ as you can.

They might remember they have had a wish and got a wish coin.

Last year a child couldn’t go on his snow wish because the snow season ended early.

So, this year when the wish was going ahead, I did another Anticipation. This time we sent them to an ice skating rink.

But on the way to the rink, his mum said to me, ‘Are you going to make those cookies again? They were awesome!’. I do little things they really appreciate and remember.

Picture: Some of Dave's snowflake cookies.

We want to give kids a positive experience to look back on. If they are going through some treatment and are still a bit ill, it gives them something positive to look forward to and some respite from what they are going through.

Instead of just looking back and saying, ‘I had cancer and it was difficult for a few years’, they have something positive to remember because the wish is part of that period. We try and give them something special, something they haven’t done in their life to that point and we hope it’s a shining light for these kids.

When I was at Camp Quality, I found out one of the other volunteers was a wish kid when she was younger.

We talked about Make-A-Wish and I think she said her wish was for a holiday or something and because it was 15 or so years ago I said, ‘You wouldn’t have got a wish coin, right?’ and she said, ‘What’s that?’

So, I told her that we give out coins as a memento and reminder of your wish, and that I would get her one. And so I did, I got a wish coin for her. She really liked that.

She still remembers her wish 15 or 20 years later and it’s still a positive thing for her. The wish really works.

Make-A-Wish is the one thing that takes up more of my time than any of the other volunteering I do.

With Make-A-Wish, I see the importance of what it does and what it means to kids, so I am willing to make whatever time is needed to prioritize children and families.

It really isn’t that much time anyway. It’s not like I am doing Make-A-Wish stuff every weekend all weekend. It’s nothing like that.

I only do it to get the best outcomes for the children.

With Make-A-Wish, you can have a life while you’re volunteering.

It’s my desire to make sure children get the best possible outcome. Whether that’s me or me helping others to achieve that.

That’s what keeps me coming back even for the difficult ones. Like non-verbal wishes, which can be more challenging. I often bring other volunteers along on those as it’s good for them to watch.

A lot of volunteers are full time workers and things can happen during the workday but I am very flexible as far as work goes. So I really do try and be flexible during business hours.

If you believe you can commit the time in your life to Make-A-Wish there is a lot of support in Branches and online, and the benefit you will derive out of it in terms of your wellbeing and positivity is immense.

Picture: Dave still finds time to travel to place such as Slovenia with wife Janeen.