South Miami's 10th annual Wings for Wishes event returned Saturday, raising money and awareness for Make-A-Wish Southern Florida.
The event featured face painting, bounce houses, live music, drinks and wings, including wing eating contests for local residents, members of the media, and top-ranked eating athletes. Members of the NBC6 and Telemundo51 teams were among those participating in the media wing-eating contest.
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WATCH HEREWorld Champion Competitive Eater Joey Chestnut was also in attendance for the Wings for Wishes Professional Wing Eating Championship.
The event started small, but over the years, has raised enough money to grant approximately 400 wishes for South Florida children with life-threatening medical conditions.
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"Make-A-Wish is one of the unique charities where you actually see the end result," Wings for Wishes Co-Founder Brian Exelbert said. "You can see a child, and most importantly, you see the changes around the child; the family, the community. So, one wish, people think, it touches one person. A wish can impact 15, 20 different people."
The event, hosted by Sports Grill South Miami in conjunction with Make-A-Wish, has become a block party and festival staple in the community.
"The original idea, we wanted to raise enough money for one wish. That [first] year, we raised $20,000, which is about four wishes," Exelbert said. "We're now in our 10th year and will have surpassed 400 wishes. So, it's gotten from the back room of a restaurant to the entire block you see behind us."
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The Southern Florida chapter of Make-A-Wish includes 22 counties and four regions in southeast and southwest Florida, Tampa Bay and the Suncoast, as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to a release. In each one of those areas, there are children requesting wishes.
"When we were here last year, one of our little guys that we granted a wish for, who had a brain tumor, he had it removed, and he came and was actually able to be here because he was in remission," COO and Managing Partner for Sports Grill Christine Marques said. "Amazing little boy. Fantastic."
Marques also shared the story of a child whose parents she knew through work, and Make-A-Wish was able to send them on a family cruise.
"When he went on his cruise, he was out of his wheelchair, and he was not sick for two or three days at a time," she said. "There was no medical tests to think about. There was no doctors to have to visit, and he and his family just had the best time. So, that was probably one of the most memorable ones."
Those unable to attend Saturday's event can click here for more information on Make-A-Wish Southern Florida.
"We just keep doing it, and we keep doing it because we got people that really love and are passionate about this," Marques said. "Our Make-A-Wish team is amazing. They're some of the most incredibly passionate and talented people that we've had the opportunity to work with over all these years."
