Who we are, What we do
The Wish List Auxiliary Board was formed 24 years ago by Ted Wankovsky, a dedicated Children’s Memorial Hospital volunteer. His interaction with the kids gave him the motivation to initiate something that would truly make a difference in the kids’ experience at Children's. Mr. Wankovsky began raising funds to support the playrooms through an annual event that came to be known as Playdough Palooza. Throughout the years, the event has raised over $1 million dollars. Mr. Wankovsky still volunteers weekly at the hospital as a tutor and remains active on the Wish List Auxiliary Board.

Currently, the Board consists of dedicated volunteers who meet twice a month to plan small fundraising events, and the main event – Playdough Palooza. Other initiatives the Board supports include Heartlight, a support group that helps children cope with the passing of a sibling; Project Open Book, which distributes over 1,600 books to outpatients each month; tutoring services; communication devices and computers, toys, games, books and education equipment for the playrooms in the hospital; and Skylight TV, which supplies internal TV child-oriented programming for the hospital’s patients.

Our vision is inspired by the courage of children and families. It is sustained by the extraordinary contributions of compassionate, knowledgeable, and dedicated staff and volunteers, and built upon a strong tradition started in 1882 of providing unsurpassed health care for children. The Wish List Auxiliary Board was born out of the volunteer office by dedicated volunteers that realized that there simply were not enough supplies to support the vision of hospital.

For more information contact us at wishlistboard@gmail.com