York Student Hopes To Raise $10K for Make-A-Wish Foundation

ELMHURST, IL — Every year during the holiday season, Samantha Uditsky, a junior at York Community High School, asks friends and family to write letters to Santa. She then takes the letters to Macy’s, who, through their Letters to Santa campaign, donates one dollar to the Make-a-Wish Foundation for each letter they receive.

According to the district, it’s an important project for Uditsky, who has a special connection to the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Her cousin, Gabriella Miller, was diagnosed with DIPG, an inoperable brain tumor, at the age of nine.

“She was always headstrong and when she had a goal in mind, she wanted to achieve it,” Uditsky said in a release. “So that kind of translated into the letters. She wanted to help others, so that’s what she did.”

The district said the Letters to Santa project was just one way Miller tried to raise awareness for pediatric cancer patients. After her diagnosis, Miller became a champion for kids everywhere fighting for their lives, even establishing her own foundation, Smashing Walnuts.

During her own fight, Miller was granted a wish from the Make-a-Wish Foundation. A fan of the musical Les Miserables, Miller traveled to France to see the show with her family. Miller passed away in 2013 at the age of 10. But Uditsky is continuing the work that Miller started, making that her cousin’s fundraising efforts for the Make-a-Wish Foundation continue.

“After she passed away, knowing that I was continuing something that she did, made me feel a little bit better,” Uditsky said in a release.

Last year, Uditsky collected around 4,000 letters, equaling about $4,000 for Make-a-Wish Foundation. This year, she wants to at least double that.

The district said Uditsky wrote an email to each elementary school principal in District 205, asking if they would be willing to have their students write a letter to Santa or write a letter with their wish to the world. In the days leading up to winter break, Uditsky plans to stop by each school and collect the letters.

While each letter equals a donation. Uditsky also hopes that the process of writing them opens people’s eyes to the number of children fighting cancer.

“There are children that are my age, younger, in elementary school that are fighting for their lives and we tend to look over that,” she said in a release. “So the letters themselves… it’s about having kids help kids.”

Letters can be dropped off at any Macy’s location leading up to Christmas. Letters can also be submitted online at macys.com/social/believe.

Photos provided by District 205.