EPPING, N.H. – It was a wish 75 million years in the making.

Through New Hampshire’s Make-A-Wish Foundation, Taylor Limoli wished she could dig for dinosaurs. So, last summer, at age 8, she and her parents found themselves in the sweltering badlands of Montana, where dinosaurs once roamed.

On the second day of their dig, Taylor uncovered part of a turtle shell estimated to be 75 million years old.

“I thought it was a rock, then when we dug it up, it looked like a turtle shell,” she said recently. “I wanted to bring it home, but I couldn’t because it was really delicate, so they put it in the museum instead.”

Taylor’s wish is one of more than 146,000 granted for children with life-threatening conditions through Make-a-Wish foundations around the country.

But Taylor’s wish stood out almost as much as her find: officials say most of the wishes are to visit theme parks in Florida, or, for older kids, shopping sprees.

Taylor’s shell, about the size of a small pizza, is being prepared for display at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Mont.

“It IS 75 million years old,” said the museum’s paleontology educator, Molly Ward. “The significance of it is that it’s a good example of the species and one of the largest pieces of these turtles that we’ve found out there.”

Make-A-Wish’s goal is to offer children hope for better times, strength for tough times and joy to experience the present. New Hampshire’s chapter was founded in 1986, three years after the national foundation was launched in Arizona.

Taylor was born with one kidney, which began deteriorating when she was 6. She received a transplant from her mom and may need another in about 18 years. If so, it would come from her dad.

A nurse told the family about Make-A-Wish.

“A wish can be as simple as wanting a puppy or wanting a hot tub in your back yard to as grand as Taylor’s wish of wanting to dig for dinosaur bones or wanting to pet a cheetah in the wild,” said Julie Baron, chief executive of the state foundation.

When the group receives a referral, two volunteers meet with the child, figure out exactly what the wish is, then check with doctors to make sure the child is physically able to accomplish it.

Then they figure out how to grant it.

Wish-granter Phil Dean met with Taylor to make sure a dinosaur dig was not passing fancy. He quickly found out she was serious, put the word out in the paleontology world and got responses from all over the country.

“It was a kind of an indicator of how many great people are out there – just everyday people – who will help you if you ask them,” he said.

New Hampshire Make-A-Wish grants more than 55 wishes a year and hosts families from other states. The New Hampshire International Speedway is a popular destination for children who want to meet their favorite race car driver.

Baron said she focuses on the joy a wish can bring, but often must share in a family’s grief.

“We do get very attached, and sometimes their wish will be granted and we lose them shortly after or couple of years later,” she said. “But we really celebrate the children who make it through the other end, are doing well and want to come back and to meet the donors who helped them realize their wish and want to be out in the community and thank them for it.”

Taylor’s mother, Stephanie Tozzi of Epping, said her family’s wish trip was a godsend.

“For once, we didn’t have to think about anything else but having fun for her,” she said. “We didn’t have to think about her being sick.”

While most kids might show off toys to visitors, Taylor brought out a plastic bag that contained real dinosaur bones and teeth and a prehistoric clam.

And she’s serious about finding more.

“I want that to be my job,” she said.

On the Net:

www.newhampshire.wish.org

AP-ES-03-03-07 1725EST