On Sunday, Bestmaze Corn Maze held a fundraiser for the Brighton chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Michigan. Fifty percent of the ticket sales were donated to the foundation. Attendees share what they like about corn mazes as they made their way down the trails.
As people wandered around the Bestmaze Corn Maze of Williamston, Mich., completely lost, they helped find a way to make a child’s wish come true.
On Saturday and Sunday, Bestmaze donated half of the revenue from ticket sales to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Michigan, an organization that raises money to grant wishes for children with life-threatening and terminal illnesses.
“We wanted to give back to the community but we didn’t know which fundraiser to do,” said Mark Benjamin, owner of Bestmaze.
This is the first year that proceeds from Bestmaze will be donated to the foundation. All of the money will be used to grant wishes in Michigan, said Kedrin Gall, Make-A-Wish development director of the Brighton foundation.
Benjamin said the weather during the event negatively affected attendance on both Saturday and Sunday, making it difficult for him to estimate attendance.
The Make-A-Wish Foundation is close to Benjamin’s heart. While standing in line with his family at Disney World to meet characters from “Cars,” Benjamin watched as Make-A-Wish volunteers escorted a boy and his family in line ahead of him. With a glance at his healthy son, he held hands with his wife.
“It put a lump in my throat to see a boy my son’s age (going through that),” Benjamin said.
“We thought about what that family was going through. It was something to see a family in that situation having a great time, almost as if they didn’t have a care in the world at that moment.”
Benjamin said instead of just donating money, he held the event as a way to raise awareness and money for the foundation.
Laura Varon Brown, director of communications and public relations for the Brighton foundation, said community members approach Make-A-Wish with ideas for fundraisers.
“They … come across a “wish child” in their community and they’re inspired,” Brown said.
“They see what granting a wish can do for a child and a community.”
Since 1984, the foundation in Michigan has granted wishes to about 6,000 children. The average cost of a wish granted by the Michigan chapter is $7,500. More than 80 percent of donations to the Make-A-Wish Foundation are directly used to grant wishes.
Attendees of the event walked through the under-the-sea-themed maze. Going through the maze takes about an hour for each person, Benjamin said, but it varies from person to person.
Linden, Mich., resident Lucas Dickinson said that getting through the maze was “just luck.” Dickinson, a high school junior at Linden High School, visits the maze regularly.
“Me and my family (have gone) here every year for the past four years,” Dickinson said. “It’s a really big maze; it takes a lot of time.”
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