Ally’s Wish

Wish Ally’s

“I knew she and her family were okay in terms of basic needs – food, shelter, and clothing. But what about hope and joy?”

by Diane Ciarloni | photos courtesy of Ally’s Wish

Flower Mound resident Missy Phipps knew Allyson Hendrickson. But she didn’t really know her. The two ladies attended the same church, and they were quick to nod and smile at one another at Sunday services. Missy knew Allyson was married with three little boys, and she knew Ally had cancer.

“The part about the cancer really weighed on me,” she recalled. “I mean, I knew she and her family were okay in terms of basic needs – food, shelter, and clothing. But what about hope and joy? And those three little boys. Would their strongest memories of their mom be about hospitals, treatments that made her miserable, and her bald head? That just didn’t seem right to me, and I couldn’t shake the feeling.”

Phipps continued tending to her successful real estate business with Keller Williams as well as her four children, daughters Natalie and Madeline and twins Adysson and Rocco. She’s high-energy and always busy, but she never fails to establish time for making fun memories with her kids.

All the while, she couldn’t stop thinking about Allyson.

“I still couldn’t shake the feeling about Allyson,” she continued. “All of a sudden, God laid on my heart the missing puzzle. It was fun memories! The same kind I make with my kiddos. Allyson was a young mother who cherished her kids. But she was dying, and she would never see them grow up. She was going to leave this world, and their most vivid memories would be what I mentioned earlier – hospitals, no hair, and horrible treatments. I knew there must be a way to find out what these young moms wished to leave as memories and then move to make those wishes happen.”

Phipps called three like-minded friends. They brainstormed. They came up with a loose plan. They opened their energy reserves, and they went to work, selecting Allyson Hendrickson as their first wish grantee.

Paperwork was drawn up, and Ally’s Wish was born as a non-profit corporation organized and operated exclusively for charitable purposes. The specific purpose is to provide a last “wish” to young, terminally ill mothers with small children. The goal is to create a memory for the family that will last a lifetime. The road to implementing these wishes is through the provision of services, gifts, transportation, lodging, or any other “wish” the mother may express. The 501c3 organization caps each wish at $5,000 and secures money through fundraising and donations.

“That all happened just seven years ago,” Phipps said. “We really didn’t know what we were doing. We simply took an idea God dreamed up for us and started running with it. We’ve granted 200 wishes so far, and there are 200 moms on our waiting list. We have an unbelievable number of out-of-state and even international requests. Last year, in just one day, we had 30 moms fill out wish requests.”

There was so much to learn for four ladies who had never done anything like this. How do you organize fundraisers? Which ones are most effective? How creative should we be? What are the rules and regulations that must be followed to avoid violating the 501c3 requirements? How do we get the best deals, and how do we find sponsors? It was akin to being caught in a tornado, but they knew they needed to hang on for the ride.

“Most of the wishes are for trips, with Disney World and Hawaii being the most popular,” Phipps said. “Some wish for a backyard makeover with a swimming pool so the family can make memories at home. We’ve even had wishes for movie rooms. “Allyson, our first mom, and our original inspiration, kept a blog for her three sons called 3 Little Cowboys. She wished for it to be published. Allyson is gone, but the book is still available at www.AllysWish.org.”

The date for the annual Boots & Blessings Gala is April 22. It is the organization’s premier fundraiser and will be held at an open-air venue at Marty B’s. The 5k run is the second fund-raising event. Also, in 2020, Alliance Energy presented a $100,000 check to Phipps after Ally’s Wish won their non-profit contest.

Ally’s Wish was named Non-profit of the Year in 2019 at the Unity in Communities luncheon hosted by the Lewisville Chamber of Commerce, Flower Mound Chamber, and the Highland Village Business Association.

And the future? “I dream big,” Phipps said with a chuckle. “Do we want to grow? We’re already growing. We just have to keep up. That’s only one of the places where God comes in – again and again.”