​Giving, and giving back, via Make-A-Wish

The "Dream Team" we're following this morning doesn't play football or basketball or any other sport of the season. Instead, these team members go all-out to make the dreams of children come true . . . wherever and whenever they can. Our Cover Story is reported by Lee Cowan:

As we pause to give thanks this weekend, consider thanking Nature for Yosemite National Park. It's a wonder, and those who protect its beauty deserve our gratitude, too.

Especially nine-year-old Ranger Gabe Lavan-Ying.

He raced with wild excitement to the scene of a brush fire at Cathedral Beach picnic area ("The firefighters need your help putting it out!"). As the flames leapt at the dry bush, all the cares Gabe had in the world went up in a puff of smoke.

Was he scared? "No," he said.

"How come? It was a pretty big fire," Cowan said.

"Because I'm brave," Gabe replied.

Gabe wasn't only bravely battling the fire that day; he's battling a life-threatening disease, called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome.

"My joints really hurt and I have a bunch of pain, and my legs really get sore, so I can't really walk that far," he said.

"It really hurts a lot?" Cowan asked.

"Ah-huh. I hurts, like, every day."

"So what do you do?"

"Deal with it."

The disease has weakened Gabe's connective tissues -- his skin and his joints. For him, just living is painful.

Cowan asked, "What do you tell your mom?"

"I tell my mom, like, it hurts and it hurts really bad. And sometimes if it hurts like super bad, we have to go to the doctor."

Watching her son suffer is a pain all its own to Gabe's mom, Tara.

"The amount of strength it must take you to get though this , I can't even comprehend it," Cowan said. Tara just shrugged her shoulders.

"Because he's so severe, I don't know what his future holds," she said. "I have no idea when he's gonna hit that threshold of tremendous pain, and how are we gonna work with that? I don't know."

"Because there's no light at the end of the tunnel really?"

"No, this is forever for Gabe."

If she could wish his illness away, she would. Instead, she did the next best thing: she helped Gabe Make-A-Wish of his own.

You've probably heard of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The walls of its national headquarters in Phoenix, Ariz., are lined with the sick kids they've helped. Jacob wanted to be a baker. Caleb wanted to have his own elephant. Stephen wished to work in a pickle factory.

"There's a lot more to this than just sending a family to an amusement park," said Make-A-Wish President and CEO David Williams. "This is not a fluffy, just nice thing that we do. This is really, really important. It is not a dying wish, it is not a last wish. This is a wish that in many cases is going to help them get better."

Contrary to what most people think, Make-A-Wish doesn't just grant wishes to kids with a terminal disease. Any child with a potentially life-threatening condition, like Gabe's, is eligible.

Gabe's wish just was to be far away from the white walls and florescent lights of big city hospitals. Examining a beetle up-close, for once Gabe was the one doing the poking and prodding.

As a Park Ranger for a day, Gabe wasn't just participating in rescue drills; he was rescuing his whole family from the daily reality of his illness.

"Everybody's first wish is for a child to survive their illness," said Williams. "Some of them do, and some of them don't. Even with the ones who don't, I've had conversations with parents who will say today, that was the greatest week of our family's life."

Those life-changing experiences started 35 years ago with one sick child. His name was Chris Greicius. He was diagnosed with leukemia, and given just three years to live.

"He liked his trucks and his cowboy boots," said his mom, Linda. He was "a boy's boy."

But before that three years was up, Linda says Chris was determined to become a Phoenix police officer. "He just loved everything about them -- between the sirens and the uniform and the authority figures, maybe in some way it gave him a little extra fight for life, you know?"

There was no fundraising organization, no volunteers -- just a few Arizona Department of Public Safety officers who wanted to help.

As his illness worsened, they arranged for Chris to take a ride in a police helicopter. They even got him a uniform -- a tailor stayed up all night making sure it was just small enough.

Make-A-Wish was born.

"You could see the pride in his face," said Linda. "He did it. He did it, you know?"

Just two days after getting that uniform, Chris passed away. He was laid to rest in it at the age of seven.

Cowan asked, "So what do you think this all meant to him?"

"Oh, I don't think there's words to describe it, I really don't," said Linda. "More enjoyment than probably what he'd known in a long time."

And what did it mean to her? "Well, as you can probably see from the tears, a lot of joy for me because this was something that I was helpless to do, you know? I couldn't have done this."

That was 250,000 wishes ago -- and it paved the way for kids like 12-year-old Jackie Arista, battling muscular dystrophy, to have their wishes granted, too.

The day we arrived Jackie was about to met Cinderella. "How are you feeling today?" asked Cowan. "Happy!" replied Jackie.

Abraham Almanza was the Make-A-Wish staffer in charge of making Jackie's wish come true.

"When I first met her, the first thing she just said was, 'Princess.' That was, like, before I even said hello, she gave me a big smile and she was like, 'I want to be a Princess and I want to be special, and I want to feel like a star.'"

The closest princess he could find in New York City was actor Laura Osnes, who played Cinderella on Broadway. Watching a performance of "Cinderella" together. Abraham knows the power of a wish and what meant to Jackie. Twelve years ago, Abraham was diagnosed with stage-4 lung cancer.

HIS wish: to see a canopy of stars at sea. So Make-A-Wish booked him on a cruise.

Now that he's in remission, he's returning the Make-A-Wish favor.

Cowan asked, "It changed your life?"

"It absolutely did, yeah," said Abraham. "It impacted me in a way that I knew that at some point when I'm older, I wanted to give back."

Which gets us back to Gabe, whose wish ended with an unexpected flourish.

A real judge showed up, with real power to swear Gabe in as a Yosemite Park Ranger, badge and all. "So help me God," said Gabe.

"Mr. Lavon-Ying, I congratulate you, you have taken the oath," said the judge to cheers.

The Park went wild. Gabe's fellow Rangers, even the judge, got a little misty-eyed. The Yosemite Superintendant even gave the newest Ranger a hug.

Cowan asked Gabe, "Was it everything you thought it was gonna be?"

"No," he replied.

"You wanted more, or ...?"

"No, I thought it was like, not this this much."

"It was even better than you thought?"

"Yeah," Gabe said.

So, as we give thanks for all of life's fortunes this weekend, remember a place that makes wishes come true every day.

For more info:

• Find local chapters at the main website of Make-A-Wish America (wish.org)
• To refer a child
• Ways to help
• How to donate
• Follow the Make-A-Wish Foundation on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube
• Elizabeth Seton Pediatric Center, Yonkers, N.Y.