SPRINGFIELD, MA (WGGB\/WSHM) – On Thursday, the Boston Celtics helped four young basketball fans have their wishes come true thanks in partnership with The Make a Wish Foundation of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Before they experience their VIP treatment at Friday night\u2019s game, they got to pay a visit to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame where they were met with gifts and a few surprises.<\/p>\n
The Make a Wish Foundation of Massachusetts and Rhode Island teamed up with the Celtics\u2019 Shamrock Foundation and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame to create a special VIP experience for four young recipients.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese four children tomorrow are going to have such a wonderful day. They\u2019re going to start with escorts, VIP escorts over to the TD Garden. They will be courtside to watch the game. There\u2019ll be other surprises for them. And, you know, with every wish, our goal is to hit the mark of joy. And I can\u2019t imagine that even here today at the Hall of Fame, that won\u2019t have already been met,\u201d said Peg Wheble, the Regional Director of The Make a Wish Foundation of western and central Massachusetts. <\/p>\n
The wish recipients included two who came from as far as Arizona and Pittsburgh, and two recipients of the Baystate, all of whom had to show strength and resilience to get through their ailments, and each of them excited to cheer on their beloved Celtics Friday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wish was to go to Boston Celtics courtside. And the reason I chose this is just, it\u2019s a, I\u2019m very privileged in my life, and this is an opportunity that I wouldn\u2019t even be able to get with my privilege. So, I just, I don\u2019t know, it just seemed like an opportunity that I couldn\u2019t give up, like meeting star players maybe, sitting courtside for my favorite team,\u201d said Leo Gonzalez, one of the recipients of the Make a Wish Foundation. <\/p>\n
In preparation for Friday\u2019s game, the kids got to tour the Hall of Fame, received customized trading cards and jerseys from Fanatics, and had lunch catered by Jersey Mike\u2019s.<\/p>\n
As for Friday\u2019s game, they\u2019ll receive a full police motorcade, and diplomatic security service escorts on foot from their hotel all the way to TD Garden. Their VIP experience will be completed with courtside access while meeting their favorite players, before they\u2019ll get to watch the Celtics take on the Raptors in one of the luxury suites.<\/p>\n
\u201cBasketball has the ability to bring joy to everyone. These kids already exhibit so much resilience, so much courage. And we\u2019re happy to help them make their wishes come true.\u201d<\/p>\n
Western Mass News is a proud media partner of The Make a Wish Foundation of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 Western Mass News (WGGB\/WSHM). All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPRINGFIELD, MA (WGGB\/WSHM) – On Thursday, the Boston Celtics helped four young basketball fans have their wishes come…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[241,7,45,46,2093,24447,5968,656,7833,44875,169,7230],"class_list":["post-525794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-a","tag-basketball","tag-boston","tag-celtics","tag-fame","tag-foundation","tag-hall","tag-make","tag-memorial","tag-naismith","tag-of","tag-wish"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115861673110599802","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}