2009 Volunteers of the Year: Mark and Kristi Schaut

Mark and Kristi Schaut’s motivations for volunteering as a wish-granting team with Make-A-Wish are simple—they want to give a seriously ill child the same joy their daughter Nikki received from her 2004 Best Buy shopping spree. Nikki’s health improved after the spree, and they began to volunteer. When Nikki relapsed and passed away from a rare form of leukemia in 2007, they volunteered even more. Now the Schauts are one of the organization’s most prolific teams, taking on multiple cases at once. Although it is the wish team’s job to act as liaison between a family and the Make-A-Wish offices, the Schauts go the extra mile, making themed travel backpacks for kids going on trips and creating photo albums to chronicle the experience. Mark says they do it to keep Nikki’s spirit alive, and, just as important, “to see the smiles on the kids’ faces.”