by Alyssa Amasol
December 10, 2011
In hopes to inspire giving and generosity within Americans, Macy's "Believe" campaign hosted its third annual National Believe Day on Friday. Macy's partnered with the Make-A-Wish Foundation to grant more than 55 "Wishes Across America" for children with life-threatening medical conditions. The campaign lets children write letters to Santa. For every letter collected in Macy's santa mail letterboxes, Macys will donate $1, up to $1 million, to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. However, National Believe Day was also Double Donation Day, where Macy's pledged to donate an additional dollar per stamped letter, even beyond the $1 million goal.
This National Believe Day is especially important to local Kailua keiki Reece Goo, a wish recipient dedicated to collecting thousands of letters from all over the world in order to grant wishes to children of Hawaii with life-threatening medical conditions. Goo was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor a few years ago and immediately needed to start treatments. During this time, he met with wish granters from the Make-A-Wish Foundation who granted him his wish to go to Disney World this past summer.
After hearing about Macy's campaign, Goo came up with the idea to help other kids in Hawaii. This fall he set out to collect 5,000 letters to help fund wishes for kids with life-threatening medical conditions. With boxes of letters from numerous Hawaii schools and all over the world, Goo reached his goal.
"I wanted other kids to have just as much fun as I did, its the best experience Ive ever had," Goo said.
On National Believe Day Goo collected more than 800 letters from Maryknoll School that students wrote in support of Goo's dedication and Macy's Believe Campaign. These letters were the last addition to the thousands he had already collected.
He delivered them to Macy's Ala Moana on National Believe Day after travelling with Mayor Peter Carlisle in the Honolulu Fire Departments Special Events Vehicle. At Macy's, Honolulu City Council members Stanley Chang and Ikaika Anderson presented Goo with an honorary certificate for his exceptional efforts in giving back to the community.
"This year especially, Reece had a lot to do with raising awareness about the campaign itself," said Crissy Gofigan, volunteer intern at the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Hawaii and senior at Hawaii Pacific University. "Because of his efforts he's inspired other kids to want to give back too, it just goes to show that every voice does count, no matter how young or old you are."
Along with these National Believe Day events, the Make-A-Wish Foundation granted the wish of a local teenager named Taylor who thought she was there to share her letter to Santa with the public. Mayor Carlisle announced that her wish to go to the GRAMMYs was going to be granted. Macy's gave Taylor a celebrity stylist makeover complete with an outfit of her choice to wear in February when she will be traveling to Los Angeles to attend the 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards.
"The goal of the Make-A-Wish campaign is to grant a wish to every eligible child," said Camilla Crescenzo, communications coordinator for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Hawaii. "This campaign definitely brought awareness of Make-A-Wishs presence to the local community and its wish-granting work to our local keiki."
