Participants in the first Central Alberta Heroes Challenge, in September 2024. (Supplied)

By Josh Hall | @Vancan19

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Podcast: Make-A-Wish Heroes Challenge returns to Red Deer this September

May 30, 2025 | 6:24 AM

A long waitlist of one-day Wish kids is hoping residents of central Alberta will choose to be a difference maker this September by participating in the second annual Red Deer edition of the Make-A-Wish Foundation’s Heroes Challenge.

The Red Deer area alone has 32 pending wishes, with each one costing about $10,000.

That’s why the organization is putting the call out now to get more people signed up for what will assuredly be a great event, all going down Sept. 24 at The Dome in Gasoline Alley.

“Participants will spend the day doing a series of challenges. They’re not all physical; some are brain-related, and then we wrap up at Bo’s Bar and Stage for our after-party,” says Kathryn McLean, development manager for Make-A-Wish’s Edmonton chapter.

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“You’re competing against other teams to gain points and sort of win the day. It’s team-building, and it’s a very unique opportunity to really understand what’s behind the mission of Make-A-Wish, including directly from a child who’s gone through it or may still be going through a critical illness.”

Indeed, perhaps the coolest part of the Heroes Challenge is when each team gets paired with a local Wish kid.

Teams are of five people, with a default team fundraising target of $5,000.

According to McLean, a child somewhere in Canada is referred to Make-A-Wish every two hours.

Since last year, 162 wishes have been granted in just northern Alberta, which for the organization’s purposes, includes Red Deer.

One local Wish kid is Blake Adair, whose family joined McLean to speak with rdnewsNOW and The Everything Red Deer Podcast.

Participants in the first Central Alberta Heroes Challenge, in September 2024. (Supplied)

Blake, who is 10, received his wish of a trip to Disney World six years ago, after he’d undergone intensive treatment for critical aortic stenosis and mitral valve regurgitation — both conditions he was born with.

By the time of his wish, he’d been through four open heart surgeries, and he’s had other complications on top of all that.

“Our family was separated. It was a really hard few years,” says Blake’s mom, Amanda. “The wish was a blessing for us at a time when it felt like there were a lot of things not going our way.

“You don’t ever plan for these things, but they say you are never given anything you can’t handle. You find the strength and you do it, but it’s still a huge battle no matter how many people you’ve got on your side.”

At the end of the day, she says, a trip, or any kind of wish a child may receive, can restore for a family the quality time together lost during treatment.

For Blake, that means with mom Amanda, father Matt, twin brother Kaleb, older brother Jacob, and older sister Alexis.

To register for this year’s Heroes Challenge in Red Deer, click here.