Dream Comes True for Deer Park Make-A-Wish Girl

Friday wasn't the first time that Christy rode in a fire truck. Just like five other Make-A-Wish kids in the Deer Park area, the 13-year-old Robert Frost school student was a guest in the annual Christmas parade with the local fire department.

This year, however, Christy got a second ride with the Deer Park Fire Department -- to Macy's, at Walt Whitman Mall, where the heart transplant recipient helped with the department store's annual 'Believe' campaign, which raises funds in support of Make-A-Wish. 

With a red carpet entrance, Christy, accompanied by her mother and sister, was welcomed to Macy's by staff of the store and escorted through the building to the red Santa mailbox located at the front, where she wrote and deposited a letter to Santa.

Next, Christy went up to the second floor, where a party was held in her honor.

Then, it was was off to pack for the vacation of a lifetime - a seven-day cruise of the Western Caribbean -- the wish Christy had been granted by Make-A-Wish.

With the help of generous donors and more than 25,000 volunteers, Make-A-Wish grants a wish somewhere in the country every 38 minutes. It has granted more than 212,000 wishes since its inception in 1980; nearly 14,000 in 2011 alone.

Kids say wishes give them renewed strength to fight their illnesses, according to the Foundation, and their parents say these experiences help strengthen the entire family.

The Suffolk Make-A-Wish chapter grants an average of 120 wishes a year to kids who have experienced life threatening conditions. "Thank goodness with advances in medicine, more and more of them survive," said Karine Hollander, CEO of the foundation. "Like Christy -- she's doing phenomenally."

The Deer Park Fire Department got into the act about five years ago.

"We had been doing an adopt a family program, but wanted to make it bigger," fireman Joey Grillo said. "So every year we find a Make-A-Wish kid, give them presents, and they ride in the Christmas parade on a fire truck."

This year, in collaboration with Make-A-Wish, that effort has grown to include a visit to Macy's on National Believe Day.

Macy’s 'Believe' campaign invites people to mail letters to Santa using their letterboxes. Throughout the campaign, for every letter mailed, Macy’s donates $1, up to $1 million, to Make-A-Wish. On National Believe Day, Friday, December 14, Macy’s doubles the donation by contributing an additional $1 to Make-A-Wish for every stamped letter received, up to $500,000,  above and beyond Macy’s $1 million goal.

"We've been blessed," said Christy's mother, as she and her daughters were welcomed by a crowd of well-wishers into Macy's on Friday. "The response today is overwhelming."