Location: Navy Pier
Date: Saturday, May 16, 2015; 3:30-10:30 pm
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| "Shark Dance" anyone? |
As I was waiting for the bus, a gentleman started telling me
how he was 73 years old, never married and doing well. As fascinating as the story was, I did not have
the time for it, and so called a cab and arrived at ‘Navy Pier’ 15 minutes prior to my check-in time. Went up to the Volunteer Break room and already
there were quite a few people who had arrived early.
I signed the check-in sheet and picked my t-shirt. They had gone with a colorful theme this year
and from amongst the 6 colors that were available, I went with Red. Couple of the volunteers had been assigned the
task of watching over things in the volunteer room and Emily, who was in
charge, told them to watch over the “Shark
costumes” in the back, since they were going to be part of a performance
called “shark dance”. What!
I went and looked and sure enough, there were two foam shark
things. I guess that would be an
interesting performance.
I met Allison, who like me had been a “Wish Ambassador escort” last year, and was on registration
today. We walked over to registration
downstairs and saw that several tables had been set up with a “surface tablet” on each. We had decided to team up and so took the table
at the end with ‘V-Z’ last
names. First order of business was training,
and there were couple of guys who showed us how to check guests in, enter their
address and phone number, and then swipe their credit card using a swipe
machine. This would make their checkout
at the end of the evening easier. The “VIP’s” would start coming at 5:30 and
the rest of the guests at 6. It was
still early though and since we had some time, I went over to look at the “Silent Auction” floor. There were the usual goodies, including
something called “Date night package”,
which included dinner at different restaurants.
But the main attraction was a 100 piece wine bottle display, which came
with its own wine cooler. Now that's something I could live with.
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| The Wine Package which would have worked for me |
I came back to my table just as first of our guests
arrived. As I went through the process
that was shown to us, the swipe machine wasn’t working. After several futile tries we had to resort
to manual entry, while the poor guest waited patiently. They took away our swipe machine as they did
other ones. So much for testing and
preparation then. In the meanwhile, our
guests had started to arrive and while Allison was finding their ticket, I
would check their “bid number”, mark
them “checked-in”, and enter their
address and phone number. Allison would
then read me their credit card number and expiration date. If guests came to the wrong line, rather than
asking them to go somewhere else, I would check them in while Allison went and
found their ticket.
Everyone was dressed elegantly, with the men in a tuxedo and
women were of course in lovely dresses.
I was complimenting a few of them and also engaging the guests in
conversation. When I saw that one of the ladies had
an address near my old apartment, I told her so. Then when I asked her phone
number in order to enter into the system, she said, “My,
you are getting fresh”. Everyone’s’
a hoot nowadays! Some people did not
give their credit card, saying that they would think about it later. One guy said that his credit card was with
his girlfriend, when the registration screen said “Mr. and Mrs.” Hey, who am I to judge how rich people lead their
lives!
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| It was a perfect evening |
We saw some of the ‘Wish
kids’ including the youngest girl who is 4 years old and was looking
adorable in her evening gown. Her wish
was to have a “splash pad” and I am
sure she must have had a grand time! We
were getting through the registrations fast and with only 5 tickets remaining;
Allison and I were excused. We went back
to the volunteer break room for dinner and chatted with the other volunteers
who had been busy with their duties. Now
that I was done for the rest of the evening, I could go explore and see the
rest of the program. I went to the
terrace where the tent had been setup for the afterparty and it was a perfect
evening for a rooftop party. Next, I
went over to the balcony overlooking the grand hall where the dinner was being
held, and the “Live Auction” was in
progress. The “Auctioneer” was doing a terrific job and a lot of people were
bidding. But then came what turned out
to be the highlight of the evening – the speech by the ‘Wish Mom’, which is a tradition at this event.
It was a story about her daughter Leah’s visit to
Paris. Leah was a young teenager, full
of life and had always wanted to visit Paris; even having a picture of the ‘Eiffel Tower’ in her room. When she was diagnosed with cancer, life took
a terrible turn with doctors and treatments.
But Leah’s enthusiasm never dampened and neither did her love for
Paris. So it was an easy choice for her
wish. When it looked like the treatments
were working and Leah was getting better, she and her family were on their way to
Paris. As is always the case, MAW did a
terrific job in giving Leah the best experience possible, including a dinner
while watching the sunset from a restaurant on the ‘Eiffel Tower’. Leah was
having a perfect visit, but there was one thing that she wanted to do above
everything – visit the famous “Love Lock
Bridge”.
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| Standing applause after the story |
As Leah visited the world-renowned spot, she wanted to put a
lock on the bridge as a mark of her visit, but the family did not have a lock with
them. So, with only this one wish
unfulfilled, Leah returned back home.
For the next few months things were fine, but then the cancer returned
and this time, it was too much to overcome.
Leah was lost. As the mom
finished the story, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house and the entire room
gave her a standing applause. The mom
started walking away, but the host rushed to stop her. The story wasn’t over yet. We then saw a video from MAW-France. A woman was standing on the “Love Lock Bridge” and she mentioned
that she had heard about this one unfulfilled wish that Leah had. Next, we saw her put a lock on the bridge and
it had Leah’s face on it. Then as is the
custom, she threw the key into the river, memorializing the moment for
eternity. As the mom watched with
disbelief, she was handed a matching lock as a keepsake. Every single person in the audience,
including myself was at that moment speechless.
There was nothing to say, really.
This emotionally charged moment was followed by the “auctioneer” asking people to donate,
starting from $15,000, all the way down to $100. At one stage, one lady walked up to the stage
and said that she would match any donations, up to $100K. Wow, that was generous. After almost everyone in the room had
donated, Jay Leno – who was the chief guest - took over and it was
hilarious. One of the “Wish Ambassadors” in attendance had
gone to visit Leno’s garage – which has a huge collection of vintage
automobiles - and Jay said that he could come back whenever he wanted. They he auctioned off a visit to his garage
and it was fantastic to see him work the room.
When the bid reached $25K, he said that he would give away 4 trips to his
garage so as to make it a $100K donation to MAW.
Once he was done, the evening was over and people moved to
the terrace for the afterparty. After
my walk this morning and all of this, I was tired and so decided to go home
instead. As I walked past the registration
tables, I saw the poor volunteers who were on closeout and would be there till
late. I had to go through the entire
length of ‘Navy Pier’ to the entrance
and some more till I could get a cab. Although I had missed the "Shark Dance", it
had still been a great evening, and the “Wish
Mom’s” story was the icing on the cake.
Over the past 3 years I have seen and heard incredible things. But nothing….nothing comes close to what I
witnessed with her today. And I don’t
think anything ever will.
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