Company taps teen's creativity
By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Health Writer
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
When Mililani teenager Natalie Frazier was told she had cancer, she didn't ask for a horse, a trip to Disney World or a meeting with a celebrity. She wished for a chance to do something creative.
Natalie Frazier, 15, of Mililani, dived under a wave of arms during a skit performed at Camp Ikaika, a retreat for children who have been diagnosed with or have survived cancer. Natalie's cancer is now in remission.
With the help of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Hawai'i and a public-spirited company, the 15-year-old wound up surfing on the label of a new flavor of Wish-Bone salad dressing that she helped create and which carries her name.
Her effort also resulted in a $400,000 pledge from Wish-Bone to Make-A-Wish.
"I wanted to do something different," said Natalie, who is in remission and is a freshman at Mililani High School.
In 2000 Natalie was diagnosed with a form of cancer called non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Lyn Brown, executive director of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, said it looked into the creation of a Beanie Baby and other ideas for Natalie, but couldn't find the right combination until it heard that Wish-Bone was looking for a way to make a difference with a dressing.
Last fall the foundation sent Natalie and her mother, Nancy, to Wish-Bone's New Jersey headquarters, where the girl worked in the kitchen to help decide how the dressing should be: tangy, not creamy, and raspberry because that's the flavor of a favorite smoothie.
She also got to help design the label showing her surfing a cartoon wave ("I can manage to get up on a longboard," she says, calling her surfing skills modest). And she named the dressing "nalu," Hawaiian for wave.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
The result: "Natalie's Nalu," a raspberry guava vinaigrette.
Natalie Frazier, a teenage cancer survivor, helped design a new salad dressing as well as a label for the bottle through the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Its roll-out was last September. Wish-Bone produced 48,000 bottles, marketing it through newspaper ads. The company shipped 33,000 bottles to people who sent a dollar a bottle for shipping costs.
Wish-Bone didn't make any money from the dressing but pledged $400,000 as part of a three-year commitment to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
The dressing is becoming something of a collector's item, but it is no longer available to the public. Company officials are considering whether to donate the remaining bottles to charitable organizations.
Brown said the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Hawai'i has granted 500 wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions since 1984.
Although many people link the Make-A-Wish program to dying kids, Brown said more than 50 percent of the children are long-term survivors.
The American Cancer Society is looking for adult volunteers who can devote a week to helping with the cancer camps. The next one will be June 6 to 12, for ages 7 to 17. To volunteer, call 432-9102 on O'ahu and from the Neighbor Islands, (888) 227-7107, ext. 102.
Other unconventional requests the foundation has met include arranging for a child to watch a space shuttle launch, sending a boy who wanted to see snow and animals to the Iditarod dog sled race in Alaska and arranging for a girl to be the voice of a cartoon character onto the animated "Madeline" TV show.
Help needed at cancer camps
This week Natalie is attending the American Cancer Society's Camp Ikaika at the Makaha Resort Golf Club.
This is her third year of cancer camp and she would advise any child diagnosed with cancer to sign up. "Everybody has an instant connection," she said.
Natalie said meeting other kids with cancer helps everyone to feel that they're not alone. "And to keep that sense of hope; things are going to be OK."
Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.
