A house full of wishes

Mathis Winkler

Owning a home on ocean-view property in Corona del Mar was hardly an

option for Susan and Andrew Phillips three years ago.

Struggling to build up his company, which sets up electronic payment

systems that enable merchants to accept noncash payments from customers,

Phillips said he “didn’t have enough [money] to even pay attention.”

Then came the Internet revolution and with it a boost in demand for

Phillips’ services as more and more Web sites were looking to let people

pay for their goods with credit cards online.

Leaving their humble beginnings behind -- Andrew started out as a

carpenter, Susan worked as a loan processor -- the couple became rich

enough to buy a house on Ocean Boulevard. And then the one next to it.

And the one after that as well. Together with their daughters, Summer, 2,

and Serenity, 1, the Phillips’ are now building their dream home after

demolishing two of the houses.

“We’re dot com people,” Susan said almost apologetically when asked

how many more houses she and her husband planned on buying.

But another building the Phillips helped to buy recently won’t add to

the family fortune. A $100,000 gift to the Make-a-Wish Foundation of

Orange County has allowed the organization, which grants wishes to

children with life-threatening diseases, to buy its own home. Foundation

officials expect to save up to $600,000 in rent over the next ten years.

At an average cost of $5,400 per wish, that sum will allow the

organization to grant wishes to an additional 111 kids.

The Spanish-style Tustin building, which will be known as the “Summer

Serenity Wish House,” still needs to be remodeled. But organization

officials hope to move in by September.

Asked why he decided to make the donation, Andrew Phillips had a

simple answer.

“I have five healthy children,” said Phillips, who has three daughters

from a previous marriage. “There are many that are not so fortunate.”

Granting the wish grantors’ wish

On one of the walls in the office of Teri Siplivy, the foundation’s

director of program services, hangs a white board that lists the progress

of wishes.

One child wants to go shopping, another wants to go on a Disney

cruise. A third wants to swim with dolphins and yet another hopes to go

fishing in Alaska. The organization has granted about 1,300 wishes since

its inception in 1983, with many granted to Costa Mesa and Newport Beach

kids. A Newport Beach boy suffering from cancer was one of the latest

wish kids from the area.

“He wanted a best friend,” said Siplivy. “So we got him a Labrador.”

Although computers and trips to DisneyWorld remain high on the wish

list, sometimes a child’s true dream isn’t costly at all.

“We can spend thousands on a wish and you want a 69 cent mouse,” said

Siplivy. In that particular instance, the child got the mouse and a

habitat trail, a limo ride and a fancy lunch, she added.

But some wishes are expensive and organization officials decided

they’d rather grant more of them than sending a hefty rent check to a

landlord each month.

“We realized we’d put $1.2 million into someone else’s coffers” over

the next decade, said Mark Pilon, the foundation’s chief operating

officer. “So why not get a building?”

Fourth time’s a charm

Susan Phillips’ connection with the organization actually goes back a

good 15 years. While working for a mortgage company in Newport Beach as a

19-year-old, she heard about Make-a-Wish and thought about getting

involved.

But watching the foundation’s introductory video, which includes the

stories of wish children that have since died, Phillips didn’t feel like

she was up to the challenge.

“The death part was a little bit too much . . . just a little bit to

real for me,” she said, sitting on the second-floor balcony of one of her

homes in early March. Commanding breathtaking views of Newport Harbor and

the city beyond, the balcony -- along with the house -- has since been

demolished.

A few years later, she tried -- and failed -- again to volunteer for

Make-a-Wish. The third attempt didn’t get her much further.

But then a friend told her about the foundation’s wish to own a home

and Phillips realized this was her way to go.

“It’s just always been a calling for me,” she said, her diamond

pendant reflecting the afternoon sun. “I have always loved kids . . .

[Wish children] just want some magic moment and get to be king and queen

for a day. That, to me, is empowering.”

When Phillips talks about plans for the family’s new home, it becomes

clear that her own children won’t lack a thing, either.

Apart from theater and billiard rooms in the basement, there will be a

pool in the yard with a slide. A playhouse that’s attached to the

building will add to the fun, along with “lots of 007 type things for the

kids,” Susan Phillips said.

And with her own family taken care of, Phillips decided it was time to

branch out.

“The big upstairs guy created everybody to be a giver,” she said

during a telephone conversation while vacationing in Hawaii. “I can do

this. God gave me a heart so I get to give.”

Since getting involved with the foundation, the Phillips’ have helped

with hands-on demolition work at the new wish house and signed up friends

to donate their money.

Slowly, Susan Phillips is getting closer to her original goal of

becoming an active wish grantor for a child as well.

She’s recruited one of her husband’s employees and a friend, both

Spanish speakers, as volunteers for the foundation to help grant wishes

to children who don’t speak English.

And the couple has promised to join the two women for the Make-a-Wish

volunteer training program.

“This time, I’m committed,” Susan said.

FYI

To make a donation or for information on the foundation, call (949)

476-WISH or go to o7 https://www.wishoc.orgf7 .