Twilight Wish holds 10th annual fundraiser
The Butler County chapter of the Twilight Wish Foundation, a nationwide nonprofit dedicated to granting wishes to senior citizens, held its 10th annual Happy Hour fundraiser event Thursday night, Feb. 19, at the Family Bowlaway Fun Center in Butler.
“Our chapter started 16 years ago here in Butler County,” said co-director Tricia Pritchard. “And in 2025, we granted over 70 wishes for senior citizens.”
Pritchard said the fundraiser had no real specific target. She noted the chapter raises $7,000 on average for each year’s event.
“Every cent that we raise goes to help grant more wishes,” Pritchard said. “We've been very blessed every year that we've had this event. It will be fun to see how much we raise tonight.”
The national Twilight Wish organization was founded in Bucks County by Cass Forkin in 2003. Seven years later, Jean Bowen founded the Butler chapter. Bowen now serves as co-director with Pritchard.
“It was a tribute to my mom,” Bowen said. “She loved seeing people get what they wanted, so I did it as a tribute to my mom.”
According to Pritchard, the Butler chapter’s entire staff is volunteer-based.
“We're all volunteers. We all come from various organizations. I work at BC3,” Pritchard said. “We just like to help senior citizens in our community.”
Among those volunteers are a group of students from the Butler County Vocational-Technical School. At Thursday night’s fundraiser, three of them spoke about their experience in making holiday wishes come true for about 70 residents of the Sunnyview Nursing & Rehabilitation Center.
“At Christmastime, we adopted 70 residents from Sunnyview, who have no family. Nobody comes to visit them and they have nobody to bring them presents,” Bowen said. “So we partnered with the vo-tech school. They went and talked to the residents to see what they wanted and we went shopping for 70 people.”
“(The vo-tech students) picked out the gifts for those residents and they wrapped the gifts,” Pritchard said. “So, at Christmas, when those residents woke up on Christmas morning, they had gifts in their room.”
“To us, this project meant more than just the experience we gained,” said vo-tech student and Seneca Valley senior Kylee Brennan. “We were able to give and bring joy and happiness to those who may not get visits from family members during the holidays. We were able to bring happiness with those gifts and make them feel seen and loved on the holidays.”
Another one of the notable wishes that Butler’s Twilight Wish chapter granted over the past year was for 90-year-old Navy veteran Carl Selfridge, an avid Pittsburgh Pirates fan who wanted to see one last game. In partnership with Pittsburgh Pirates Charities, Twilight Wish treated Selfridge and 15 of his family members to club box seats at a June 28 home game against the New York Mets at PNC Park.
“He got signed memorabilia from the players. It was an amazing night. They had a great time,” Pritchard said.
Selfridge’s stepdaughter, Sis Sarver, spoke at Thursday night’s fundraiser, choking back tears as she spoke about how special the wish was for her stepfather and her family.
“It was a very happy and exciting day for him,” Sarver said. “He didn’t know where we were going. He’s just looking around like, ‘where are we going?’ And we wouldn’t tell him. We pulled up to the stadium and his face lit up.”
“We had a rain delay for an hour and a half,” Bowen added. “Nobody likes rain delays, but we loved it. This family sat around together and talked about memories from when they were kids and the grandkids got to hear these stories that they had never heard before.”
At the end of the program, Pritchard asked all attendees to assist in granting a wish to a 65-year-old woman from Eureka, Calif., named Carla, who asked for a sense of companionship.
“She has physical disabilities. She’s not married. She has no children and she doesn't really see visitors very often,” Pritchard told the audience. “Her wish is simple. She wants you to write her a note. Write something to Carla. ‘Thinking of you,’ ‘Have a great day,’ ‘You’re special.’ You decide.”
Anyone who is interested in submitting their own wish can go to the Twilight Wish website and click on “Request a Twilight Wish” under the Wishes menu.
