T: 9-5 W: 9-5 T: 9-5 F: 9-5 Weekly: 32 hrs Total: 470 hrs Brianna Fuller

4/26/19
Journal 15

This week at Make-A-Wish Georgia, I have come to the realization that I will be leaving

this foundation soon. It is truly heart breaking to be departing from such a wonderful

organization and such a great internship experience. I spent my week organizing and refiling all

the files that were filed wrong, sending out my October reminders, filing documents, following

up on a deceased child, narrowing down the amount of funds we still need to do, competing in

the shoe wars, and getting some new box orders.

I have sent many hours organizing all of our files, (Did Not Qualify, Closed, Deceased),

and this week I am finished! The rule changed, so we can only shred the files that are over seven

years old across the board. I have refiled and completed that task. There are numerous other

filing cabinets with files that can be shredded in our basement, but I will save that for the next

intern!

I sent out the October reminders this week, to the families that are still on the backlog.

This was an email congratulating them that they only have three months left on hold and

reminding them to send in any documents we still need! After this, I got many documents sent in

to me, and one email stating that a child had passed away while on hold. This really broke my

heart and makes me feel horrible. They were so close. Also, we make sure to include in every

reminder and email that if the child’s condition changes or worsens in any way, to notify us

immediately so we can rush their wish. A lot of the times, the parent’s will not notify us and then

we look silly when we are unaware. I sent the family a bereavement card and apologized over

email. It is super frustrating when we could have rushed their wish, but we just had no idea of
their conditions. Maybe if there was at least one other chapter in Georgia, we would be able to

raise enough money for our kids to come off of a backlog.

I have certainly been working hard on creating as many funds as I possibly can before I

leave. I was given 375 to complete and have reduced my list to 120. This is huge! Now, our

system is electronically making funds for any new kids, so we just have the create the funds for

all of the eligible kids from January 2018 until March of 2019. My current goal is to completely

finish all of the funds before my internship is over. I know creating funds is tedious and boring,

but it really helps out the wish coordinators during the Wish Process.

My supervisor and I are in a shoe war currently with our shoe drive. Other participants

have brought in less than twenty pairs of shoes. My supervisor has donated 130, and I am

catching up with 112! I have contacted all of my friends and family, classmates, coworkers at my

other jobs, etc. My car smells like a giant hot shoe, but it is for such a good cause! All the shoes

are being donated to people in Haiti, and the tax write-off we get goes directly to granting

wishes! I brought in close to half of what my final donation will consist of, but I had to make it

seem like that’s all I had! My goal is 2oo pairs of shoes by this week and beat my supervisor

Kerri! She said she has many more to bring in, so the competition is getting fierce!

This week I also made fifty new wish kid files for Kerri, and the Spanish coordinator

gave me instruction to make eleven wish boxes before I leave. That is definitely going to be

extensively time consuming, and I am not sure where they will fit, but hopefully I can complete

them for her! Also, it is World Wish Day on Monday, so we have been keeping many secrets

about 3 wish kids who will be getting their wishes granted that day but have no idea yet! One of

our wish kiddo’s wish was to announce the first NFL draft pick for the Buccaneer’s, so we

granted that wish this week! He was so excited and surprised with a trip to tour their stadium
with his favorite player! His story was all over the news this week, which brought in some great

national awareness to our foundation!

As my days are numbered here at the best foundation ever, I am relentlessly trying to do

as many things as I can possibly think if while they are looking for a new intern to replace me.

They said they are having a hard time finding someone, because all the people they have

interviewed have no background at all with this field or have any experience at all. Many have

told me that they will never find a better intern than I have been this semester, and they might

just be saying that, but I love the recognition. I have been working to the best of my ability and it

is so great to know it has paid off. I loved working for a non-profit, the best team in the world,

and I have gained some great friendships, and so much experience. I am so grateful for this

opportunity.