Behind The Wish: Bec
Travel agent Bec Wilkes has helped two Make-A-Wish Branches take-off in Queensland. The long-time volunteer has also sat on the Make-A-Wish Australia Board.
Adventure parks, Olympics and starting a family
I was born in Launceston, Tasmania. We were in the same house in Launceston my whole childhood until my parents made the decision to move to Queensland when I was in primary school.
My brother and I moved without my mum and dad. I had an auntie and uncle that were up there, so we lived with them for the first six months. And then my parents moved up after us.
I left school in Year 10 and did a year of TAFE and started working. I was working in an accounting office as an office junior and then decided that leaving school early was a mistake so I finished school externally so that I could go to university.
I decided I was going to be an accountant and started doing that part time, got maybe six months into accounting and decided that I'd rather stick
pencils in my eye than be an accountant and changed to marketing instead.
I went from marketing into public relations.
At one stage I worked for a gentleman named Lloyd Bond. He's the guy that did the opening and closing ceremonies for the Sydney Olympics.
I did public relations at SeaWorld (pictured) and then Dreamworld. And then got married, had kids, and sort of stopped working.
I got married in 1999, had four kids and I’ve since remarried.
My eldest child is 26. Then I have a 24-year-old. And I have 19-year-old identical twins.
Best friends join Make-A-Wish
I work for myself now; I’m a travel agent.
But when I kind of stopped working, that's when Make-A-Wish came into my life.
I'm someone that needs to keep my brain active.
I'd been in public relations, so I'd been reasonably active with work all the time and I was just struggling with being a stay-at-home mum and not working and not doing anything.
So, I was looking for something that could keep my brain active.
I came across Make-A-Wish. I'd looked at a few different charities, but they were not what I needed.
When I researched Make-A-Wish, the whole way that Make-A-Wish handles volunteers and has them involved in talking to the kids and doing the wishes just appealed to me.
My best friend Emma and I (pictured) joined Make-A-Wish at the exact same time, and we were both young and most of the other people in the Gold Coast Branch at that time were all much older.
I think Emma got invited to be President the second month she was there and I became Fundraising Coordinator the second month I was there. And we were just straight into it.
So, the two of us worked together on events and trying to just get more people into the Branch virtually right from the minute we started.
I think really from the first meeting that I was there, I realised that Make-A-Wish was something that I could really get stuck into and find enjoyment in.
Picture: Emma (left) and Bec.
Memories of Amy's wish are still strong
I still know the girl from my first wish. Her name is Amy. I think she was about 14 at the time and she had a brain tumour.
And the only thing that she could eat at the time when she was having treatment was from this little restaurant that was run by an old Italian Nonna that made handmade pasta.
Amy (pictured) used to go there with her family and eat this Italian food. And so, her wish was to go to Tuscany in Italy to cook.
For the wish, her older sister and her parents joined her, and they went to Tuscany and absolutely loved it.
And to this day, her sister – who is now is married and has six kids – and her mum and dad, they all go back to Tuscany every single year.
The wish child is an adult now and she is doing well. She became a specialist oncology nurse.
And over the years she has spoken at Make-A-Wish balls and functions and has advocated for Make-A-Wish. She’s a passionate supporter of Make-A-Wish.
It is so good to see that the impact from that one wish is still being felt today.
The wish made such a difference to her life.
Wishes come in all shapes and sizes
When I first started at Make-A-Wish because my kids were so young, I tended to stay away from the wishes for younger kids and did a lot of the older kids’ wishes.
I guess it was too confronting to see the young kids so unwell.
But it also made me appreciate what I had. When you see families go through a serious medical journey, it makes you appreciate how lucky you are to have healthy kids.
So, at the start the wishes for the older kids were things like laptop computers, bedroom makeovers, and shopping sprees.
I did one which was a teenage boy who wished for a gaming computer, but he also had an interest in racing cars.
So, when we presented his wish, we did it at what was then the Indy car race on the Gold Coast.
And we were in the Porsche corporate box, and we got to do a lap so that was fun.
As I eventually moved onto more of the wishes for younger kids, there was a lot of puppies.
There was one little girl on the Gold Coast and she got a pony.
Also being on the Gold Coast, we have done a lot of hosting for Wish families coming from interstate.
The hosting role means you meet the family when they first arrive and give them a little basket of goodies or some food.
And you’re just a point of contact basically for the family if they need anything when they're there, or if they have any problems.
Picture: Bec with the Gold Coast Branch of Make-A-Wish.
When you see the face, not just of the child itself, but the parents, the extended family, even friends, it just reminds you why we do what we do
Bec, volunteer
Power of the wish a constant reminder
I think going to a wish reveal always just makes me feel very grateful for the fact that I have kids who are healthy. I am not sure I could describe it because it's really not something you can describe because it's kind of a euphoric feeling, but at the same time, it's a deep feeling of gratitude.
When you see the face, not just of the child itself, but the parents, the extended family, even friends, it just reminds you why we do what we do.
I have done a bit of speaking at various Make-A-Wish events and when people hear the stories, when they hear you talking about particular wishes or they hear from one of the former wish children speak, you can see it in their faces and you can see how much it affects people.
You realise how lucky you are to be part of Make-A-Wish.
I think even the wishes from a long time ago still impact me, like Scarlett’s unicorn wish.
I still cry when I watch that video. It pops up on my Facebook feed every now and then and it still makes me cry every time I watch it.
You just think about all the work that went into that wish and all the people that came together to make that happen. It’s just amazing.
Taking on roles to help shape Make-A-Wish
I was a volunteer representative for four years on the Make-A-Wish Australia Board. Someone in my Branch put my name forward and then I obviously had to say I was happy to be nominated.
And I got voted in and re-elected after my first couple of years on the Board.
I think at the time there was a little bit of change going on in Make-A-Wish that was making some of the volunteers a little uneasy.
And so, we did a lot of work on volunteer retention and making things better for the volunteers.
I really enjoyed the fact that even though I was just one of the volunteer members on the Board, our opinions were valued.
The biggest thing that I would say I took away was that I got a much better understanding of how the organisation runs as a whole.
And how much the people that work for Make-A-Wish and also the volunteer board members that are appointed to the Board, how much they care.
The genuine passion they've got for making sure Make-A-Wish stays around and has the resources to be able to keep wishes happening.
I was President of the Gold Coast Branch for about five years, and my aim was to encourage people to do what they were passionate about.
At Gold Coast, we had lots of volunteers, and everyone was really engaged.
I didn't have to be the President that made everyone do things or had to encourage people to come to a Branch meeting or anything like that.
Now I am at the Brisbane City South Branch, they're struggling with getting volunteers to come to meetings.
A break then back into fundraising for wishes
Around when COVID happened, I was working for Flight Centre. And the travel industry was really tough during COVID. There was just too much going on in my life and I mentally needed a break, so I resigned from Make-A-Wish and spent a couple of years away.
And then I went to one of the Gold Coast Make-A-Wish Branch balls with my friend Emma, who had also resigned a few years before.
And I just realised, I missed it.
It took a little while, but once I went into business for myself and was working from home I thought ‘Yes I've got time for Make-A-Wish again.’
I wanted to be all-in. So when I couldn't give everything, I had to step away for a couple of years.
But when I was ready and realised that I was missing it, I took the step back in.
I really enjoy the fundraising side of it and doing events. We're working on a murder mystery at City Ball in Brisbane, in October.
I've done the murder mystery thing before on the Gold Coast in 2008.
And that was fun.
We also did an Amazing Race on the Gold Coast.
I love it when we have a Wish family there that speaks at a fundraiser or even when one of the volunteers speak about some of our wishes.
I love seeing how people respond to that.
When people hear those stories, they can't help but want to help.
And I don't know anybody that hasn't heard about Make-A-Wish and
hasn’t said ‘How can I help?’
Make-A-Wish just moves people.
Picture: Bec (second from left) and fellow volunteers preparing for Make-A-Wish Firemans’ Ball.
Joining up to grant wishes
A lot of the people at my wedding a year ago were people I've met through Make-A-Wish.
And a couple of the ladies, Margaret being one of them from the Gold Coast Branch, she's been with Make-A-Wish for like 30 odd years.
She had been speaking to other guests at my wedding about how someone must have asked her how she knew me.
And she said she met me through Make-A-Wish. And one of the guests Amber called me up after my wedding and said, ‘How can I join Make-A-Wish as a volunteer?’
And she signed up as a volunteer.
Picture: Bec (left) with Make-A-Wish National Patron Robyn Moore.
She'd moved here from New Zealand and had been looking for something to do. She’d done volunteering in New Zealand; it was youth work through the church her father runs in New Zealand.
And she said, ‘I've been looking for something, and I haven't found anything that spoke to me in terms of doing some sort of volunteering.’ And she said, ‘When I talked to the people at your wedding that you knew through Make-A-Wish, I realised that's what I want to do.’
She's joined up and become a volunteer.
Daughter joins Bec to grant wishes
Make-A-Wish always makes me realise how lucky I am and how grateful I am that my children haven’t had any serious health issues. But also, I'm always inspired by the families and the strength that they show and the resilience of those kids.
They can be so positive and cheerful and bring so much joy.
Even when they're going through something so challenging.
My husband’s nephew got a wish.
His nephew had leukaemia and he received a wish. And his niece's daughter also got a wish.
So even in my own family, I've got people who have had wishes now.
My oldest daughter Brittney (pictured) has become a Make-A-Wish volunteer.
Her whole life I've been doing stuff with Make-A-Wish and when she was little, she always used to say she wanted to join or help, but obviously she couldn't. She did help me with a few things with including the Amazing Race that we did.
There’s a particular bridge on the Gold Coast with all these tiny little railings on it so participants had the goal of counting the railings.
I think the number was 400 plus.
But before they could move on, they had to tell someone the exact number of the railings to get the next clue. My daughter Brittany’s job, along with her friend, was while people were there counting, she was just walking up and down the bridge, yelling out random numbers to confuse them.
She's never forgotten that. She's always said, ‘I loved harassing those people.’
The person that ended up winning the whole day bribed her, gave her $500 as a donation to Make-A-Wish for her to go away and shut up, so it all worked out well!
'I'm just glad I can play my little role'
I absolutely want Make-A-Wish to continue to be part of my life.
I really enjoy doing things for Make-A-Wish and anytime I can talk about it, I do.
I just think it's such a worthwhile charity and the volunteers by and large are just amazing and kind people.
I do make time for Make-A-Wish.
Back in the day when I was with Make-A-Wish and I had four young kids, people were like ‘How do you make time?’ and you just do.
I think I'm the kind of person that once I set my mind to doing something, I'll make sure that I'm prioritising a bit of time for it.
I'm just glad I can play my little role in the whole Make-A-Wish universe.
I think it's a fantastic charity and I think everybody that does anything for Make-A-Wish, big or small, is just amazing.
Because you know, it's not just the big things, but it’s the little things as well that make a difference.
