Grant A Wish, Inc

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Grant A Wish, Inc

Grant A Wish, Inc is a not for profit, tax exempt. 501 (c) (3) organization that grants wishes to needy. disabled and abused children, since 1981.
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Grant A Wish operates 5 programs and we are looking for supporters and volunteers to help out. We are in our 35th year of providing for economically disadvantaged families in the greater Chicagoland area. We are doing our best to provide " Gifts That make A Difference "

Operating as usual

06/30/2021

Grant A Wish Baby Program...

06/30/2021

Grant A Wish Food Program...

06/30/2021

Grant A Wish Food Program...

06/25/2021

Grant A Wish Food Program...

06/25/2021

Grant A Wish Food Program...

06/25/2021

Grant A Wish Baby Program...

06/25/2021

Grant A Wish Baby Program...

06/25/2021

Grant A Wish Baby Program...

06/25/2021

Grant A Wish Baby Program...

06/25/2021

Donation of Baby Supplies...

06/25/2021

Grant A Wish Baby Program...

06/25/2021

Grant A Wish Baby Program

06/25/2021

Grant A Wish Baby Program...

06/25/2021

Grant A Wish Volunteers...

06/25/2021

Grant A Wish Volunteer...

06/25/2021

President of Grant A Wish, Inc Mr. Vital Thomas...

06/25/2021

Greater Chicago Food Depository delivery...

06/25/2021

Grant A Wish Volunteer...

06/25/2021

Grant A Wish Food Program...

06/25/2021

Grant A Wish Food Program...

06/25/2021

Grant A Wish Volunteer...

06/25/2021

Grant A Wish School Program...

06/25/2021

Grant A Wish School Program...

06/25/2021

Grant A Wish Food Program open Saturday mornings from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm...

06/25/2021

Grant A Wish Baby Program...

06/25/2021

Grant A Wish Children & Family Center working to improve our services to our communities...

12/05/2020

Grant A Wish volunteers working food program on Saturday December 5, 2020...

07/10/2020

Grant A Wish yard improvements...

04/12/2020

Certainly, everything that is happening with this COVID-19 pandemic that has taken a negative turn for so many people to experience a tremendous amount of personal and social loss is beyond being sad. Especially for people of color who already have enough to deal with in their own life as it is and to feel more emotional pain to add to the pain already piling up. We have to be strong, we also in our own way pray deeply for those souls who are still here in the spiritual but gone in the physical for their peaceful rest. But it is sad to lose anyone this way, especially professional black scholars who given from their heart their knowledge. Those who have touched your life be grateful for those encounters and perhaps from the memory of their love you may find comfort. During this time which is unprecedented the measures being taken by the country, state, and local municipalities to fight a very intelligent enemy the virus. Words can really not express how some of you really are feeling about what is going on. But you must value life every day, especially your own life and these moments in life also teach us moving forward that we must appreciate the people in our life more and that we don't take waking up for granted. Whatever happens, as we move into the future we must love more, share more, care more, appreciate more, be compassionate more and we collectively must be the heroes for our own survival. Just know this no one will get out of life alive, even tho we mourn the loss. All of our names are on the board, but you don't know the day or the hour. So you live your life, you enjoy your life, you smile often under the circumstances, enjoy the people that are alive that you still can appreciate, you laugh more and you find within yourself the comfort and you keep yourself together from going insane. In times like these you also find out what you are made of or what you can handle or what you can take emotionally, we all have experienced loss & death before in our life already, so we have been down that lonely road. If you are doing good, be prayerful all the time, be humble, be grateful and don't take the lesson learned for granted. Happy Easter and To God All The Glory...

03/26/2020

You hear all kinds of things these days about the COVID-19 virus and the circumstances around how some people contracted the virus and what happened to them. The real fear is dying from contracting something that health professionals feel could be prevented if certain precautions are taken to keep the virus from taking hold of you physically. I think you have to do the best you can under the circumstances to stay safe and free from having others worry about what may happen to you if you get infected or get them infected. Pandemics can get out of control easily and the virus can live of surfaces for a period of time unless those surfaces are cleaned regularly. It is better to have some sort of facial mask than none at all. Plastic gloves can be used but it is easier to wash the hands regularly because plastic gloves can carry the virus after touching surfaces that may have had the virus on it. The social distancing of 6 to 8 ft is also important because you don't always know who is a transmitter. Improper disposal of plastic gloves from surfaces you may have touched with the gloves on could still put you at risk, so wash and disinfect your surroundings in case you brought home an unwanted virus. This virus can be easily killed with hardcore sanitation practices. It is recommended to wash your hands for at least 20 to 30 seconds thoroughly with soap & water. Education is the key to living through this and to be smarter living in your surroundings that you keep it cleaner. God bless you all and may you live to see better days...

03/26/2020

During this unprecedented time of action taken worldwide to eradicate this pandemic of COVID-19 that is crippling some nations, cities & communities, we still must be reminded of the power that we all have to make a difference as communities & individuals. To give, to share and to really care about what happens to your neighbors or one another. But this too shall pass but it is up to each and every one of us to be a fighter, a champion, a neighbor, a friend and to realize that you are apart of a larger community of life. Throughout history, the world has experienced periods in time where the world had other pandemics and viruses that mutated and killed millions. It didn't stop nature or humanity, but they put up the good fight to battle against a relentless enemy. Remember, no one is going to get out of life alive anyway, but you have a choice to make to listen, learn, live, love and survive this pandemic. We as a collective must do our part to change the current trend and end this now. Simple washing of surfaces and a 30 second thorough regularly washing of the hands and sanitation practices to easily kill this virus before it finds a home in you to perhaps take your life. They use to say the only thing to fear is fear itself, that may be true, but you also have to fear not paying attention. All around us are stories of life loss and the effects of those losses on their families & friends. Many will get through this and many will die from this virus, so do your part to be a hero for your family and for yourself to help us all get through this to see better days. Grant A Wish, Inc

02/29/2020

Grant A Wish, Inc's cover photo

10/22/2019

Grant A Wish, Inc's cover photo

09/06/2019

Grant A Wish, Inc., Back To School and Beyond Gift Card Drive
By: Grant a Wish Inc. | Closes On Sep 30th, 2019

Los Angeles
PreviousNext
We see lots of publicity for school backpack drives during this time of year. Kudos to those facilitators and the wonderful things that they accomplish. We too sponsor a backpack drive, but we at Grant A Wish, Inc., were thinking, what about the things that won't fit into a backpack?

Who doesn't remember having new outfits to wear for the first few weeks of school, new shoes, a needed eye exam and new glasses or even food for lunches and snacks? A lot of children do NOT have these things. That's where Grant A Wish, Inc., and you can step in to make a child's school year truly fulfilling and magical.

Grant A Wish, Inc is a not for profit, tax-exempt, 501 (c) (3) organization that grants wishes to needy, disabled and abused children since 1981. Grant A Wish was founded by Ms. Anne Blair to help make a difference in children's lives that face challenges.

Mrs. Blair lectured at many Chicago Public Schools and in the course of her visits would notice that many of the children attending appeared to need shoes, clothing and other necessities. She would speak with teachers and social workers discovering that many went without basic items like a coat, or a warm pair of boots, eyeglasses, or even pencils and paper. Grant A Wish, Inc., was started in the basement of her home, eventually moving to offices in the downtown Chicago area and a Children and Family Center in the Burnside neighborhood.

In 1981, the first 50 wishes were granted. As of 2018, Grant A Wish is still making a difference. Collectively with our programs, we have granted over 135,000 wishes. We are working to continue to improve our programs and we need your help with this gift card drive.

Though the school year has started in some sectors and will be starting soon here in Chicago, Grant A Wish, Inc., grants wishes to financially challenged families year-round. Grant A Wish, Inc., is a Guidestar Gold Member and we receive referrals from every part of the city including the City of Chicago 311 Helpline, most major hospitals like University of Chicago and Rush and social service agencies like the United Way and the Salvation Army. So please help us to meet the need for this school year and beyond. Thank you for your support. Peace and Light.

09/06/2019

Address

1136 E 93rd St
Chicago, IL
60619

General information

Grant A Wish, Inc is a not for profit, tax exempt, 501 (c)(3) organization that grants wishes to needy, disabled and abused children, since 1981. We operate a Wish, Baby, School, Food and Annual Holiday Gift Program.

Opening Hours

Monday	09:00 - 17:00
Tuesday	09:00 - 17:00
Wednesday	09:00 - 17:00
Thursday	09:00 - 17:00
Friday	09:00 - 17:00
Saturday	09:00 - 05:00
Sunday	09:00 - 17:00

Telephone

(773) 977-8126

Website

www.grantawishincchicago.org

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Videos

Mr. Timuel Black Speak at University of Chicago Reception

University of Chicago recognizes Mr. Timuel Black for his outstanding achievements...

University of Chicago honors Mr. Timuel Black...

The honor for Mr. Timuel Black at the University of Chicago reception for community partnerships on October 23, 2018...

The Jaye Spot host The Vance Network Ms.Jaye was one of the hosts for our peace movement!

The Grant A Wish 2017 Thank You Video-Dec 2017

Thank You To Everyone Who Contributed To The Grant A Wish 2017 Annual Holiday Gift Program.

The Pampering Suite

Help support the Grant A Wish Baby Program. Tickets available at: www.pamperingsuite.eventbrite.com

The Pampering Suite

Grant A Wish Baby Program needs diapers and pampers. Help support The Pampering Suite, Monday May 1, 2017 Holiday Inn Evanston, IL. $20.00 Tickets available: www.pamperingsuite.eventbrite.com

Our awesome student volunteers!

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A Message from Vital Thomas, President of Grant A Wish.

The founder of Grant A Wish, Inc Ms. Anne Blair was a dynamic inspirational African American woman, who had a big heart and always wanted to help those less fortunate. She worked with other organizations and groups to help champion causes to help the downtrodden and the poor people who just needed a helping hand. My name is Vital Thomas and Ms. Anne Blair was my mother founder of Grant A Wish. They say that the apple doesn’t fall that far from the tree. My mother was an inspiration to me to do what I am continuing in her memory & honor the mission of Grant A Wish, Inc. We all can and should try to make a difference to change the conditions facing our collective communities. A neighborhood or city is only as good as its residents, it is the mentality of the people that will make things better or worse to live any place.

My mother made her transition to the spirit world in May of 2010. It was hard to see things end for her when things got bad, she wanted to know before she was to face death, who was going to carry on her mission and I guess I was selected to do the job. The bible says honor thy mother & father and I think it also has to do with having the will, the drive and the guts to carry on someone else's dream, but in a way I wanted to make a difference to give. I loved my mother and I know the sacrifice she made for so many including me and my three brothers. She knew early in life, when she was born on August 20, 1935 and lived in the black metropolis (Bronzeville), that people needed each other to survive the harsh winters, the poorest of conditions to those who had a hard time during trying times.

Many times, what happens to you in life is measured by the deeds you are driven to achieve, when you watch people die or have very little to feed their families or people just never having enough. The black community in those days had no choice but to fend for themselves against the racist elements in Chicago at that time which made it difficult for black people to go where they were not welcomed, so BronzeVille was home. Some people that couldn’t pay their rent the whole community would support a rent party so they wouldn’t be homeless, your kids couldn’t eat there was 10 houses you could go to that had food and welcomed your kids in to eat. The love and the hate was always available, but there was a code amongst the gangsters, pimps, hustlers, policy kings, businessman, and power of the inventiveness of black people who knew that they had to look out for each other. There are countless story from family trees of the history of black families and what their ancestors had to endure under the circumstances during those times.

Rich people always had more than they needed and Chicago has a rich history of blood, sweat and tears and the sufferings of the poor. My mother witnessed the love and the hate, but the hate is what you have to watch closely. My mother had Jewish friends, Irish friends, Italian friends, & immigrants and she had people who looked out for her and maybe God knew her heart. She had people put in her life who could help her instead of hurt her. My mother worked for Channel 2 CBS, back it the day, she gravitated to media work to expose the conditions facing poor kids, she was a columnist, she worked for newspapers and she was got involved with the political establishment and she had connections with anybody and everybody who at the time was also putting up the good fight. She was involved with a variety of groups that supported black causes and that fought against the injustices with housing, jobs, political black power and Vietnam war, where black men were drafted to fight and the birth of the civil rights movement. The black panther party, the nation of Islam and those who wouldn’t want to sit in the back of any bus, the freedom riders and trials & tribulations of the times.

Ms. Anne Blair was a powerhouse and she was a person who had love in her heart to help you instead of hurting you, she worked with the Pro & Con Screening Board founded in 1976 to fight the detrimental impact that movies and television had on minorities. It was determined in a study conducted, that especially African American children or people of colored where psychological influences by what they saw at the movie theatre or on television. Because of the conditioning of the history of 400 years of slavery, it was also determined that people who never had experience these things before or where kept in the dark through a lack of education and gravitated to anything with familiarity. So, when black people saw themselves at the movie theatre or on television they were influenced by white director, writer and producers to pegs as stupid, lazy, over sexed and on & on to paint a negative image of the women & black men as rapist etc to white woman & society. When the blaxploitation movies came out to the theatres beginning in 1972 with Superfly & black thirsting to see people like them in movies they flocked to the theatres to see Richard Pryor, black role models but were tainted with negative roles and therefore influencing the behavior of certain groups of black people. Ms. Anne Blair fought against these images through the Pro & Con Screening Board and she became a Chicago film critic associating with black actors & actresses and white film critics like Roger Ebert & Gene Siskel and others. I had the fortunate opportunity to be invited to sit in many of these screening of hundreds of films over the years.

As time moved on and Bill Cosby and other black entertainers began to change the face of these images on television and in the movies like Spike Lee and others. Oprah Winfrey and so many others today who are making it known that black is business and we will no longer stand for black people being betrayed always as criminals or always living in squalor and never having any intellectual superiority. There is so much to be said about Ms. Anne Blair and what she had to face as a young girl, young lady and a woman with a family. My mother earned her stripes and she worked with so many high powered. Mayor Richard M Daley & his wife Maggie Daley was a friend to my mother as well as political powerhouses, including Mayor Jane Byrne, Mayor Harold Washington, Mayor Eugene Sawyer and others. My mother as a film critic had the fortunate opportunity to meet hundreds of the entertainment industries biggest talents. I have a large inventory of autographs to her from some of the tops talents of today & yesterday that cared about her.

Grant A Wish, Inc was started in 1981 out of the love for people and for working to grant wishes to needy, disabled and abused kids that would never see a nice Christmas or other things like a new pair of shoes, or coat, or whatever and she worked hard to grant those wishes and I am working hard to do more and to continue her mission. To God all the glory and together we can and must work to continue to make a difference to improve the conditions in our communities.