Hilites Help Grant Disney Wish For 7-Year-Old Terrell Girl With Leukemia

The Highland Park High School Hilites service club recently helped make Disney dreams come true for a 7-year-old Terrell girl with leukemia.

The Hilites donated $50,000 to Make-A-Wish North Texas during a Valentine’s Day pep rally. Hadley, a Make-A-Wish recipient, and her family attended the pep rally and they plan to go to Walt Disney World in March.

“For nearly 100 years, the words ‘Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve’ have graced the front of Highland Park High School,” said Caroline Lochausen, a senior at HPHS and the president of the Hilites. “As a student organization dedicated to helping others, we take those words to heart. We believe in the mission of Make-A-Wish North Texas and we are thrilled to help make wishes come true for deserving children and their families.”

The club raised more than $175,000 since 2007, the most of any student-run organization for Make-A-Wish North Texas. During the 2019-2020 school year, the Hilites raised the most of any student organization in one year. 

Lochausen said the Hilites raise their money from things like tickets for the club’s two annual dances. The Hilites have been a club since 1939 and also connects new underclassmen with upperclassmen at the beginning of the school year at the annual ‘Hilites Picnic’ in hopes of facilitating a smooth transition into a new school.

“It was an awesome experience…especially for the student body to see (how the donations are impacting people),” she said.

For more information and to donate, visit the Hilites’ Make-A-Wish North Texas website.

Rachel Snyder

Rachel Snyder, former deputy editor at People Newspapers, joined the staff in 2019, returning to her native Dallas-Fort Worth after starting her career at community newspapers in Oklahoma. One of her stories won first place in its category in the Oklahoma Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest in 2018. She’s a fan of puns and community journalism, not necessarily in that order.

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