Heroes for My Son (7 page)

Cofounder of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

 

 

I
t started with a boy named Chris Greicius.

Chris wanted to be a police officer.

The problem was, he had leukemia. He was dying.

 

But when Chris met Officer Frank Shankwitz, when he saw Shankwitz's motorcycle, and when Shankwitz came to the boy's home and created a toy-motorcycle riding test, for just that day Chris forgot about the leukemia eating away at his body.

 

Two days after the visit, Chris was in a coma.

Shankwitz went to the boy's hospital room to present him with real “motorcycle wings.”

When he pinned them on the boy's uniform, young Chris actually came out of the coma.

And smiled.

 

On the flight back from Chris's funeral, Shankwitz had an idea.

What if he could somehow give that same joy to other kids like Chris…just for one day?

Right there, the Make-A-Wish Foundation was born.
H

Humorist. Novelist. Storyteller.

 

 

P
eople thought they were reading something funny.

 

They thought it'd give them a taste of the deep South.

 

They thought they were getting the local color along the Mississippi River.

 

They thought
Huckleberry Finn
was just some story about a boy.

 

And it was.

 

But it was also a manifesto.

 

A challenge.

 

An uncompromising fistfight against injustice and slavery.

 

People thought they were getting a book.

 

But Mark Twain knew that if you really want to teach people something, you need to tell them a story.
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Activist. Role model. Wife of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

 

 

I
n 1932, seventeen thousand veterans and their families descended on Washington, D.C., and built a tent city, demanding what they believed were overdue payments for their service during World War I.

 

President Hoover sent General Douglas MacArthur and troops armed with fixed bayonets to meet the veterans with force. With tanks. With tear gas.

 

By March 1933, when the veterans returned, FDR was president. Instead of sending the Army, he sent his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt.

 

The first lady went to the tent city. Alone.

 

In mud and rain, she walked among the veterans. She talked to them like people. She listened.

 

Soon after, an executive order was issued that created twenty-five thousand jobs for veterans through the Civilian Conservation Corps and eventually led to the 1944 passage of the GI Bill of Rights, which gave veterans federal assistance in returning to civilian life.
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Many journalists suggested that if Eleanor Roosevelt wanted to comment on politics, she should do it off the record. That wasn't her way.

“I am making these statements on purpose,” she said, “to arouse controversy and thereby get the topics talked about.”

Race relations, the suffrage movement, poverty—every topic was fair game. Indeed, President Roosevelt didn't publicly support civil rights for black people—until after the first lady started speaking out against the social injustice of Jim Crow laws.

Test pilot. Astronaut. Space traveler.

 

 

A
t ten, he started cutting grass at the cemetery, just so he could earn enough money to buy that model plane.

But a model wouldn't cut it.

 

At fifteen, he worked three jobs at forty cents an hour, saving it all to pay for flying lessons.

But lessons could only take him so far.

 

At sixteen, when his friends were learning to drive, he earned his pilot's license. Then he hitched a ride home to tell his parents.

But he still didn't have a plane.

 

At thirty, he fearlessly tested two hundred different aircraft.

The X-15 rocket plane went faster and higher than any plane had gone before. But it wasn't fast enough.

 

At thirty-nine, he floated down the ladder, his voice calm, his movements unhurried.

Then he took a small step…and began walking on the moon.

 

Still, Neil Armstrong was being modest.

It wasn't just
one small step
that got him there.

It was the thousands that came before it.
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Actor. Sex symbol. Philanthropist.

 

 

I
t started the week before Christmas 1980.

 

He mixed the first big batch of salad dressing in his basement, stirring the tub with a canoe paddle.

 

They poured it into wine bottles and put ribbons on them.

 

He thought it'd be fun. Then it got serious.

 

Even if it didn't work, all the profits were going to charity, so at least there'd be a little bit more for cancer research.

 

Dressings, popcorns, salsas, and $265 million later, movie star Paul Newman proved that true success doesn't come from getting—it comes from giving.

 

To this day, larger companies regularly approach Newman's Own, offering to acquire it. These offers are—always—politely refused.
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Soccer superstar. Natural athlete. Worldwide phenomenon.

 

 

S
coring is great.

 

Blocking is great.

 

Winning is great.

 

But none of those equals
greatness
.

 

In 1967 the Nigerian civil war came to a sudden halt.

 

For forty-eight hours the two sides—so determined to murder each other—called a ceasefire.

 

They hadn't reached a moment of understanding.

 

They just wanted to watch Pelé play his exhibition match in the Nigerian capital of Lagos.

 

When the match was over, they would go back to violence and murder.

 

But for forty-eight hours, they would all stand together—just to witness this one man's God-given gift.

 

To witness greatness.
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