LEWISTON – Zachary Bellavance gave his wish some thought, like a practical teen who was offered aid from a genie.

The 15-year-old wanted to visit another country. And since he’s a tennis player, he figured visiting a tournament would be fun. Then, he looked at the TV. It showed pictures of the Australian Open in Sydney.

That’s all it took to decide. Then, the people at the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Maine began their work.

This year, the Camden-based charity hopes to grant wishes to 75 seriously ill kids, buying them presents, treating them to vacations or introducing them to their heroes.

It will be the biggest year yet for the Maine chapter, which began 12 years ago. Since 1992, more than 500 Maine children and their families have been treated to wishes. About 50 of them were for children in Androscoggin County.

On Thursday, the Lewiston Armory on Central Avenue will be one of eight Maine locations to hold a Walk for Wishes fund-raiser. Volunteers will include people who have taken pledges and raised hundreds of dollars. The public is also invited. For $20, you can take a walk, vie for a prize or just meet folks.

All of the money will go to help the kids.

From all eight walks, the charity hopes to raise a total of $125,000, enough to cover about 25 wishes. Other fund-raisers will include an auction in July at the Samoset Resort in Rockport and more walks this fall in northern Maine towns.

“They are all extremely important,” said chapter spokeswoman Amy Theiss. “All our money comes from donations.”

The result can be dramatic. The foundation offers children and their families a vacation after some of the toughest times in their lives.

Most of the kids have endured life-threatening illnesses.

About half go to Disney World, to a special resort within the Florida park that was created for Make-A-Wish kids and their families. It’s called Give Kids the World.

The other half do a wide variety of things.

Pairs of volunteers, known as wish granters, ask kids who they’d like to meet, where they’d like to go or what they might like to have. Last year, the Maine chapter sent a little boy enamored with farm equipment to the John Deere factory in Illinois.

“They treated him like the CEO,” said Theiss. “Then, they took him to a farm where he could play on the machines.”

Another Maine child is preparing to meet movie star Mike Myers. Last October, Rachel Dubois, a 12-year-old girl from Sabattus, managed to meet her hero, No. 6 NASCAR driver Mark Martin.

Her parents still tease her about her choice, picking the 45-year-old race-car driver over her second choice, pop star Brittney Spears.

“She’s so busy I figured I wouldn’t get to spend much time with her,” said Dubois, who has cystic fibrosis. So Dubois, whose father builds racing engines, chose her other hero. The charity sent her to the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

“I was so nervous,” she said. They visited for about 30 minutes. “He signed everything we had.” They had brought T-shirts, bags, pictures and hats.

Zachary, the 15-year-old tennis player, hopes to have his brush with fame, too. He looks on it as a kind of reward. For 14 months, he endured chemotherapy treatments to fight a tumor in his brain.

“I was sick every week,” he said.

The treatments have worked, said his dad, Eric Bellavance. The tumor, which is located near the hypothalamus, an especially delicate part of the brain, has stopped growing.

Zachary has resumed an active life, playing on the Lewiston High School tennis team. The trip is planned for January. He hopes to meet either Andre Agassi or Andy Roddick. Maybe they can give him a pointer or two.

These days, Zachary is working on his serve.

“I have the power,” he said. “I just need to get it over the net.”

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