Make-A-Wish makes local teen’s dream come true

JACKSON, Tenn. — A West Tennessee community came together to surprise a local teen suffering from a severe medical condition. Through years and years of treatments he has had the same wish, and Thursday night it came true.

At center court during a Union University woman’s basketball game, Garret Pruett got a surprise he will not soon forget. The Make-A-Wish Foundation granted his wish of meeting the creators of his favorite video game.

“I didn’t know it was going to be like this,” Garret said. “I feel like I don’t deserve all this.”

The 15-year-old thought he was a random contestant in a halftime game, but when they read his prize it was something he has wished for, for years.

“He loves his video games and he wanted to learn how to design them,” Garret’s mother, Sabrina, said. “So now he’s going to get meet the designers of his favorite games.”

Thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Garret is off to Seattle to the headquarters of Bungie Video Games.

“Now that I get to visit something that really boomed my childhood, it’s going to be an experience,” Garret said.

But Garret’s childhood has not always been fun and games. Over the past two years he has undergone multiple surgeries after a tumor was discovered in his head, which was affecting his eyesight.

“His tumor was the size of a softball,” Sabrina said. “It extended from the back of his sinus to the front of his skull.”

But that has not stopped him from enjoying what he loves.

“Ever since then it’s kind of evolved,” Garret said. “I’ve made so many friends with people across the world and the country.”

Some of those friends are at Union, whose Student Athletic Committee has raised thousands of dollars for Make-A-Wish.

“We didn’t know who it was going to go to,” Reagan Schrader said. “So to see the smile on his face and to see how happy he is to go and be able to forget about everything that’s happened over the past couple years.”

Garret said he has never been on a plane before, so he is excited to head to Seattle. But before he leaves he said he is going to thank everyone who made Thursday night so special.

Garret joins more than 200 children across the Mid-South who have had their wishes granted thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.