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

Ms. Blair was involved with an organization that conducted lectures on the negative impact of the images of minorities in motion pictures and on broadcast television. She helped champion the fight with others to help eliminate the stereotypical images of minorities in the entertainment industry. In the course of her visits to conduct these lectures, she would notice that many of the children attending appeared to be needing shoes, clothing, and other help. 

She would speak with the teachers, and social workers and discovered that many of the children needed basic items like a coat, a pair of shoes, better clothes, and many other things she found out that they needed to help them in school. In her basement at home, she started the Grant A Wish Organization to provide basic wishes to children who needed a pair of new gym shoes or dress shoes, a new coat, winter boots, general clothing items, school supplies, Christmas toys, eyeglasses to help them see better, and a host of so many other things that she would do on an individual basis to help them feel better about how they appeared. 

Ms. Anne Blair passed away in May of 2010 and we continue her mission to help those less fortunate to this day.

In 1981, the first 50 wishes were granted with the help of so many of her friends who were lawyers, businessmen & women, and other professional people who would offer her a donation to help buy the things she needed to get for those children she encountered with their wish. 

By 1989, Grant A Wish had granted over 15,000 wishes to children throughout the Robert Taylor Housing Complex, Cabrini Green Housing Complex, and other public housing units in other parts of the City of Chicago. Ms. Blair would go where the need was, it didn't matter to her where she had to go or how bad the neighborhood was and she had a heart of gold. 

She made a difference from the South Side to the West Side and the North Side of Chicago. Ms. Blair was born in August 1935 in Chicago. She experienced poverty in her community at a young age and when she became an adult & gave birth to 3 sons of her own, she advocated she wanted to help people by giving back.

As of 2024, Grant A Wish is still making a difference. Collectively with our programs, we have granted over 450,000 wishes. We are working to continue to improve our programs and we need your help. Ms. Anne Blair worked to help poverty-stricken children and she certainly made a difference in the lives of thousands of children.

Go to our homepage, click the donation button, and contribute to our Grant A Wish, Inc. organization today.

All donations are tax-deductible and 100% of all donations will benefit the Grant A Wish, Inc. organization and its programs.

GRANT A WISH FOUNDER MS. ANNE BLAIR

Grant A Wish was founded, by Ms. Anne Blair to help economically disadvantaged children.

The following is an excerpt from a letter Ms. Blair wrote:

Often, when we don't see how others live, it can be a harsh and unnerving reality, when we are confronted with negative situations involving children. Parents, teachers, social workers, and civil servants will tell you necessities such as clothing, shoes, eyeglasses, and medical care go a long way in rectifying injustice in a child's existence. These precious and necessary gifts demonstrate that someone does care!

Grant A Wish, Inc. was founded by Ms. Anne Blair to address the needs of disadvantaged children all over the greater Chicagoland area. With the assistance at that time of community, civic groups, wealthy individuals, and professional businesses. Grant A Wish became a giant in the eyes of so many - many children and their families, especially at Christmas time.

We are constantly working to continue the dreams of Ms. Anne Blair in our mission this 2024 year. Ms. Blair had always strived to engage people to act on behalf of the children she worked towards helping. Grant A Wish started as a general wish organization. Providing a bulk of its wishes at Christmas time providing some 4,000 to 5,000 gifts to Chicago area school children through the Chicago Public School System when she was active with the organization. Ms. Blair would select 10 or more schools to receive gifts for Christmas for each of their students in the entire school, of whom 90% were from poor areas of the City of Chicago. She would visit a public school and decide that every child in that school was going to receive a Christmas gift, even if it was 900 children in that school.

Ms. Blair would also identify children who needed additional help with school supplies, eyeglasses, dental care and so much more. She worked to help solve many of the problems facing these children throughout each year at those schools & others including reaching out to their families. She was a champion for the cause working with teachers, principals, social workers, and others to make a difference in the various systems. 

We believe that we must continue to help where we can in her memory to continue to make a difference.

OUR PROGRAMS

In the early days, the Grant A Wish Baby Program named today, used to be called the " I Love My Baby Program ". Ms. Blair worked tirelessly to help poor young mothers get the baby supplies that they needed for their infants coming out of the area hospitals, after giving birth, since the inception of Grant A Wish in 1981. She would help the mothers with baby blankets, baby clothing, diapers, milk, and general baby supplies. 

As of 2024, we work even harder today to ensure that we will continue to do our part to help economically disadvantaged families that need baby supplies free of charge. We sponsor other programs like our Grant A Wish School Program that supports the concept that Ms. Blair wanted all children to have an opportunity to learn by having the tools to get an education and access to free school supplies.

Ms. Blair would meet people on the street and she would ask them what was their biggest worries with their family and many would say making sure we have enough food to eat. So our Grant A Wish Food Program was born in 2001, to give away free food to the needy weekly. 

Today, Grant A Wish has given away over 2,930,000 lbs of food and we have fed thousands of families and their children as of 2001. We have been giving away free food monthly & weekly for over the last 24 years.

Our structured wish organization today and its programs are a culmination of all the general wishes that Ms. Blair would provide back in the '80s & '90s and at the turn of the century to children who needed a graduation outfit, eyeglasses, a new pair of shoes, a new coat, new clothes and a variety of individual wishes that she would provide per child. We can do more with your donations to help us help others. Ms. Blair was given a Wish and we can only hope & pray that we will be able to achieve at least half of the things that she was able to accomplish. She never stopped giving, caring, and sharing for the sake of others' enrichment, especially the children.

Grant A Wish honors Ms. Anne Blair for her love for children, her community, and her love for family. 

Grant A Wish, Inc 

today in the year 2024 is continuing her dream. 

Support Grant A Wish, Inc. today by mailing in a donation

 or 

making an online donation, 

or by helping to support one of our 

programs.

 Our organization continues to survive from financial public donations to continue our work, it is you who can make a difference, it is just that simple...

Together 

we 

can 

provide

Additional information can be obtained by clicking on the individual programs to learn more about them, how you can help, or how you can be helped.

On behalf of Ms. Anne Blair and the Grant A Wish, Inc. family, we

want

to

say