Well, Make a Wish is amazing. We had a fantastic trip to NYC and everyone had a great time.
The highlight of the trip was definitely Blake's attendance at the Origami USA Conference and his time with Robert Lang (pictured). Robert was incredibly kind. He spent 3 hours with Blake on Thursday afternoon. They folded together, Blake had his questions answered and they shared ideas. Later in the conference, Robert spent more time with Blake and gave him a personal lesson on wet folding. (you moisten your paper as you fold to make it more sculptable).
Jen stayed at the conference with Blake and they both took folding classes. The conference was relatively small and the participants were very friendly. There were many other famous names from the world of origami there, which added to the fun. Netflix streaming has an origami movie called "Between the Folds". If you've never watched it, take a look sometime! It's a great film. Most of the people in the movie were at the conference.
Victoria and Jacob and I also spent some time at the conference. And we explored NYC. We walked many miles! We saw the Museum of Natural History, Times Square, the Empire State Building, the Highline, Little Italy, Soho, China Town, FAO Schwartz, Grand Central Station, Chelsea Market, Museum of Math and more. Of course, we managed to dig up some epic NYC food locations and had quite a few tasty meals.
Many people extended extra kindness to us on our trip. Make a Wish was amazingly generous with our hotel (a very nice suite), a limo for the first day of the conference and lots of spending money for NYC expenses. The hotel by the Michigan airport comped us a second adjoining room that was handicapped accessible. And the hotel in NYC gave us a delicious chocolate cake and bag of goodies. The Origami USA folk were very kind and every time we turned around we were being given an extra t-shirt, pin or some other fun freebie. (Blake also left the conference with a ton of paper and books from the vendors at the conference. LOTS!)
Make a Wish's motto is to bring "hope, strength and joy" to children with life threatening illnesses. This trip certainly did just that!
