Delmarva Power’s Senior Communications Specialist, Zach Chizar, was recently honored at Exelon’s Annual Powering Communities Volunteer Awards for his dedicated volunteer work with Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The Powering Communities Volunteer Award is Exelon’s highest achievement for volunteerism and involvement. It recognizes Zach’s nine years of dedication to the Make-A-Wish chapter of Philadelphia, Delaware, and Susquehanna Valley. Zach has gone above and beyond, helping fulfill the wishes of over 100 critically ill children and winning the non-profit’s 2018 Wish Granter of the Year Award. Exelon rewarded Zach’s dedication with a $5,000 grant to help fulfill the wishes of children in his chapter.

As a Wish Granter, Zach works with critically ill children to help them decide what they want their wishes to be and help them celebrate at the end of the process with a wish celebration. Sometimes, Zach plays a larger role in helping execute the wish, like for his favorite wishes —shopping sprees! The shopping sprees allow the children to spend money on anything they want at the mall, “A kid’s dream,” Zach says.

Luke McKetta, the Chapter’s Vice President of Mission Delivery, explains that Zach is only required to grant two or three wishes each year but goes above and beyond, “He’s served about 100 kids, and to me, that is very important because that’s 100 smiles [given]to children throughout our region.”

For Zach, Delmarva Power’s corporate giving program is a motivator, “It means so much to me because I am passionate about volunteering, and to have that drive and encouragement for employees to be giving back is something that I really appreciate.”

In 2022, our employees volunteered more than 14,700 hours — more than 1,850 workdays — to support 183 events throughout Delaware and Maryland. The volunteerism is on top of the approximately $1.2 million Delmarva Power contributed to local non-profits.