5 Things You Didn’t Hear During LITE-FM Christmas Wish

Like many businesses in the Treasure Valley, our workshop was short staffed this year so some of the Christmas Wish magic that happened off the air and behind the scenes this year! 

We know that many of you generously opened your hearts and wallets to make LITE-FM Christmas Wish happen this year, so we wanted to share a couple of these heart warming stories that here delivered throughout the Wish season!

Gary and Jean

Gary and Jean are angels in their own right. They regularly volunteer their time to serve food to the homeless and Jean goes above and beyond for her patients at St. Luke's. When she found out that a mother when into labor early had nothing for her baby yet, Jean gave her $500 from the money she had set aside for bills.

Unfortuantely, this great family which has five children of their own, has had a rough go at it themselves. Gary lost his mom. Jean lost her father. One of their children is disabled and they had to spend a significant amount of money to replace and repair parts of his wheelchair. On top of that, they're down a vehicle right now.

Between medical bills, grieving the loss of their family members and trying to replace the car, they're not able to provide the Christmas they pictured for their children.

We surprised them with a $300 Visa gift card, $100 gift cards to Albertsons, Fred Meyer, Amazon, Uptown Cheapskate/Kid-To-Kid, a $75 gift card for Target, $50 for Old Navy and passes to Winter Garden aGlow at the Idaho Botanical Garden.

A Deserving Single Mom

Everyone in this wish situation wanted to stay anonymous, but the recipient was so grateful for the community's generosity that she asked us to share her story in hopes that if another woman finds herself in this situation they can find the courage to leave and ask for help, because the world is full of good people. You can watch the video we shot before we went below for some more details about what happened and what we brang her.

The fact that she was most grateful for the toaster is a great reminder about how something so small can mean so much. She's been hanging onto a bag of English muffins in her freezer for a while and didn't want to enjoy them until she was able to find a way to get a toaster.

Ericema

Ericema's spending the holidays without someone very special in her life. Her mother passed away from cancer earlier this year, leaving behind four children that she adopted after being their foster mom. Ericema didn't hesitate to take guardianship of her four little siblings and invited them to live with her and her two children.

On top of all the kids she takes care of, she's also caring for her stepfather who's dealing with disabilities from a work injury. Her daughter-in-law asked us if we could deliver a little Christmas miracle to make this year of change and challenge a little easier.

We stopped by with $100 gift certificates to Uptown Cheapskate/Kid-to-Kid, Old Nacy, Amazon, Walmart, Albertsons, Smoky Mountain Pizzeria Grille, Shell and gifted her a $100 Visa gift card to help with bills. We also dropped off some gift certificates for Dominos, Burger King, Bath and Body Works. Finally, we felt the family should have the opportunity to build some new Christmas memories as one big family unit, so we sent them to see the lights at Winter Garden aGlow.

Mary

We actually went BACK to see Mary and her family a second time. If you missed the initial wish, you can listen to it HERE. Mary's family lost almost all of their possessions when they found out the house they bought in Caldwell was infested with toxic black mold. It was exceptionally hard on her boys, who had to say goodbye to the large stuffed animal collection they had built over the years.

In addition to the gifts that Litster Frost Injury lawyers bought them earlier this wish season, our friends with the 501st and Rebel Legions got together to collect dozens of stuffed animals for the boys. Chris and I went back to surprise them last Sunday.

Izzy and Lindsay

This is such a fun family and Izzy is a ROCKSTAR dad. I remember doing a Cameo-style video as Wonder Woman for their daughter's birthday last year. Unfortunately, one of their kids has some health challenges and has been in and out of the hospital with kidney problems.

The medical bills piled up quickly and depleted anything they had set aside for Christmas. They ended up selling some of their belongs to keep themselves a float, but would still give the shirt off their back if it meant helping someone else in need.

They needed a little hand-up to make it through this holiday season, so we dropped off a $200 Visa gift card to help with bills. We also brought them a $200 Fred Meyer gift card, $100 Albertsons Gift Card, $100 Amazon Gift Card, $50 Kohl's Gift Card and a $50 Fandango gift card for a movie night. We wanted them to spend some family time together, too so they'll be doing dinner at Smoky Mountain Pizzeria Grille, seeing the lights at Winter Garden aGlow and playing at Wahooz and Pinz!