One Simple Wish Gives New Cars To 9 Adults Impacted By The Foster Care System

Sixteen years ago, Danielle Gletow became a foster mom and within a year she adopted one of the children, a two-year old baby girl. During the adoption, she found out she was pregnant—but instead of funneling her energy solely to her own family, she continued fueling her passion to help the kids in need.

She set up a nonprofit, One Simple Wish, to galvanize donations from others like her, who want to make an impact and bring joy to foster youth. Over the next 15 years, One Simple Wish collected over $15 million to grant requests for over a quarter-million kids and young adults impacted by foster care. Wishes range from laptops and sports equipment to art supplies and music lessons—even travel expenses for an aspiring model to fulfill her dreams at New York Fashion Week.

Every year nearly 500,000 children are impacted by abuse, neglect and trauma and spend time in our nation’s foster care system. The wish-granting platform gives kids a chance to just be kids, but they can also make important connections, experience new things and find their passion. Gletow said “I wanted to be a mother to all these kids who might not feel like they have one. I realized, early on, that a lot of these children decide it’s not worth wishing anymore, because it isn’t going to happen.”

This year, to mark National Adoption Month, Gletow and her team gave nine new cars to deserving adults who, in their youth, were impacted by the child welfare system. They flew all the winners to New York City under the guise of ‘a foster care conference’ just so they could surprise each one with keys to a new car—along with a year’s worth of insurance and gas.
Participants gathered for dinner where the real reason for the trip was revealed. The nine were then surprised with car keys, along with a $500 gift card, and more.