A Metro Detroit nonprofit is asking families to nominate chronically ill or disabled children for an all-expenses-paid trip to Disney World this December, and the price tag behind the offer runs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Jay's Juniors is accepting nominations through October 18 for the group trip, which will send selected families to Orlando, Florida, from December 1 through December 5.
The nonprofit, founded in 2014 by Detroit television and radio host Jay Towers, is looking for children between the ages of 3 and 17 who have a chronic or terminal illness, an impairment from a birth defect, or a physical challenge, according to ClickOnDetroit. Families can nominate their own child or someone else's, but the household must live within the WNIC listening area and demonstrate financial need, showing they otherwise couldn't afford the trip on their own. Nominations are submitted through jaysjuniors.com.
The five-day, four-night trip covers hotel rooms at Disney resorts, airfare, airport parking, ground transportation, park admission and activations, PhotoPass services, and food and spending money, leaving families with essentially nothing to pay for out of pocket. Towers has said the program gives sick children and their families respite from doctors' visits, treatments and long hospital stays, per the same ClickOnDetroit report.
A Half-Million-Dollar Undertaking
Pulling off that kind of trip for 25 to 30 families isn't cheap. According to Jay's Juniors, the total cost of the annual holiday trip runs between $450,000 and $500,000 once hotel stays, multi-day theme park passes, ground transit, meals, snacks, PhotoPass services and spending money are all factored in. A significant chunk of that budget, roughly $200,000, goes toward chartering a dedicated Delta Air Lines aircraft so the group can travel together, a setup that lets the organization accommodate medical equipment, wheelchairs and other specific health needs without the disruptions of a commercial flight.
All of the money raised for the trip flows through Angels of Hope, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit that serves as the organization's official charitable partner, while the Jay's Juniors team itself operates entirely with unpaid volunteers. That structure means every dollar donated is tax-deductible and goes toward covering family expenses rather than administrative overhead.
A Track Record Built on Local Radio and TV
Towers, who began his radio career at age 14 in New Jersey and has broadcast in Metro Detroit since 1997, now serves as morning host on 100.3 WNIC and weekday morning news anchor on Fox 2 Detroit, according to the Sepsis Alliance. That dual platform has helped drive substantial fundraising results in past years. During its 2025 campaign, 100.3 WNIC and parent company iHeartMedia raised $1,073,522 for Jay's Juniors, funding a chartered flight and Disney World vacation for 28 Metro Detroit children and their families, per iHeartMedia's own impact reporting.
The program has also leaned on a wide coalition of local businesses. Corporate and community partners supporting Jay's Juniors through direct contributions, proceeds, and special events include Kroger, Jersey Mike's, Planet Fitness, Masco, Kinetyc, Emagine Theatres, Canterbury Village, and the Village of Rochester Hills, according to Jay's Juniors. Those partners have run individual promotions, from movie theater fundraisers to community events, to help chip away at the trip's total cost.
Adapting Through the Pandemic, Honoring Those Lost
The program hasn't always looked the way it does now. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when group travel was unsafe for immunocompromised children, 100.3 WNIC adapted the initiative into “Jay's Juniors At Home,” raising over $211,000 to fulfill holiday wish lists for affected local families instead of sending them to Florida, iHeartMedia's 2021 impact report shows.
The organization also maintains a dedicated online memorial called Jay's Angels, honoring former participant children who have died from their medical conditions, a somber reminder of the stakes behind each nomination. Theme park wish trips remain a major part of pediatric wish-granting nationwide, with the Walt Disney Company involved in roughly half of all wishes granted by major wish organizations, according to Make-A-Wish America, a pattern that helps explain why Orlando remains the destination of choice for organizations like Jay's Juniors.
Beyond the holiday trip, Towers also leads an annual spring Cereal Drive in Metro Detroit that collects more than 1 million servings of cereal each year for area children facing food insecurity, partnering with local food banks to fill the gap when school meal programs pause for summer. Families interested in nominating a child for this year's Disney World trip have until October 18 to apply through jaysjuniors.com.
