Click to enlarge Sue Hall presents Michael and his family with a certificate for a free hunt, which he can now use thanks to the wheelchair provided by the Wishing Well foundation.

BY K. MCSTAY

HERALD DEMOCRAT

Michael, if he could, would go to Africa, he said, and hunt lions.

With the assistance of a local non-profit organization, 17-year-old Michael is closer than ever to a safari.

The Wishing Well, based in Sherman, provides wishes to children ages 3 to 18 years old with life-threatening illnesses. For Michael McCraw, that illness is Friedreich's Ataxia, a progressive disease of the nervous system.

His wish? For a new, all-terrain wheelchair, enabling him to participate with his family and friends during their frequent outdoor trips.

Michael loves to hunt, and in his previous wheelchair, that proved difficult. The paths and properties that Michael and his father could hunt on were limited. Wednesday, the Wishing Well changed that, donating an all-terrain chair as well as a certificate from local doctor Robert Burlingame for a free hunt for Michael and his family.

"This doesn't hold him back, he's not limited," Sherry McCraw, Michael's mother, said. The family often goes to the beach and goes hunting, she said, and the chair will keep Michael participating. "Over the last several years, he's really gotten into hunting," she said.

Sherry McCraw said she saw the number for The Wishing Well, which works out of Wilson N. Jones Medical Center, on a television ad. She called, and a home visit was scheduled. Enter Sue Hall and Regina Crites, with the Wishing Well foundation. "We work through word of mouth," Crites said.

This particular wish, Hall said, was unique. "A lot of our wishes are for travel," she said, but Michael can't travel. "His daddy loves to take him hunting, though," she said. The chair will also help Michael travel around his hometown of Ravia, Okla., with Goliath, his pet dog. At first, she said, the Wishing Well thought this wish wouldn't come to fruition. "It took some time," she said. But eventually, it came to pass.

"When we first met the family ... his father said, this child is the light of my life," she said. "They're doing a good job with him."

Sherry McCraw said part of that poise is the support of each other. "We have the support of each other, we have God," she said. "God is what gets us through."

The residents of their hometown know Michael well, she said, and help out as well. The family is grateful for the new chair, she said, including 11-year-old Brittany, who said she was looking forward to her brother being outside. "We're grateful for the goodness," Sherry McCraw said.

The chair, said Patrick Wallace, has some particularly special features. Wallace works for United Rehab Specialists Inc., a Dallas company, which was able to donate the chair to Wishing Well and Michael. "It's four-wheel drive," Wallace said, and has a higher clearance so uneven terrain is less of a problem. "It's basically like the monster truck of wheelchairs."

Andrew Ellis, also with United Rehab, said there are upgrades for the wheelchair as well. "You can get headlights and taillights," he said, as well as other upgrades.

This chair, however, took a nationwide search to find, Wallace said. "The Wishing Well contacted us," he said. Usually, Wallace said, such events are met with less fanfare. "We're just a company trying to do the right thing," he said. "But this is why we do what we do."

Michael said he's hoping he learns quickly the controls for the new chair. "I like just being out," he said, noting that it has been difficult not being able to participate in activities outdoors.

Dennis McCraw, Michael's father, said they continue to put their trust in God. "He's our strength, and lets us know there is hope, and a life, regardless of what else," he said.