Mel Brown of Yakima is a retired accountant and paralegal who gives back to her community in a variety of ways. One is as a “WishMaker” for Make-A-Wish, a role she’s had for 12 years.
Make-A-Wish grants wishes for children with critical illnesses, giving them and their families hope and strength amid the battles they face. Make-A-Wish exists in 51 countries. It began in 1980, when 7-year-old Chris wished to be a police officer.
Brown is a WishMaker for Make-A-Wish of Alaska and Washington, which will celebrate 40 years of wish-granting in 2026. She and husband Al, who retired in April 2017 after 20 years as executive director of the Yakima Greenway Foundation, are two of six wish-granting volunteers across Yakima County, where 21 kids are waiting for their wishes.
That means local kids are waiting about two months for their wish process to begin. Organization supporters say they’re in dire need of more local wish-granters, like Mel, especially more English-Spanish speaking volunteers to help with Spanish-speaking wish families.
Brown was involved with the granting of a wish earlier this year for Pascual Cisneros, 10, of Yakima. Last year, he spent five months at Seattle Children’s Hospital after being diagnosed with stage 3 fibrolamellar carcinoma on his liver. Pascual is now in remission.
Pascual is a fan of Mexican singer-songwriter Chalino Sánchez and had shared a wish to have a shopping spree for items to become a cowboy like Sánchez. He got his wish granted at Boot Barn in Yakima in February.
Brown is working on another one. “I’m starting on a new wish,” she said.
Learn more about Make-A-Wish of Alaska and Washington, including how to volunteer, at wish.org/akwa.
When was your first volunteer effort, and why did you choose that organization?
I began volunteering with Make-A-Wish in 2013. I just felt like Make-A-Wish was the place I belonged. I love children, and anything I can do to help an ill child, not matter how small, is well worth it.
How did you get involved with Make-A-Wish?
I decided I wanted to volunteer with Make-A-Wish, so I researched it and applied to the Seattle office. I am still going strong.
What does volunteering with Make-A-Wish entail?
Volunteering with Make-A-Wish is different with each wish. First, you get a list of current wishes and pick one in your area. Then Make-A-Wish sends you info in the child and contact information. This includes their likes.
Then you make contact with the family over the phone or email and set up a time to meet the family, complete the necessary paperwork, and see what the child is thinking about for their wish. When you visit the family for the first time, it is nice to take an ice-breaker gift along. That info I like to obtain from the family on my initial phone call.
Then the paperwork goes to the program staff and they begin getting medical approvals if it entails a trip of some kind. I then work with program staff and the family to make a wish come true.
When we are ready for the wish to be made possible, we have a “wish presentation.” This can be anything from a party at their home or out to a restaurant or park. At this presentation, we like to make the theme around what their wish is.
Were any of your Make-A-Wish efforts especially memorable? Why?
One wish was for a 7-year-old to go to Disney World. He was deaf and had to be fed with a feeding tube. I got an ASL interpreter to come with us for the initial visit so we could speak with the parents and the wish child could have his own conversation regarding his wish. His family consisted of his parents and his siblings. They were all so wonderful and so appreciative of the trip. The smiles on their faces was all the thanks anyone needs.
What would you tell someone interested in volunteering for Make-A-Wish?
When you see the looks on the child’s face, it can be so moving. Sometimes the trips some of the children go on is a welcome respite from the everyday life of being sick. A time when the whole family can recharge. And it is so needed.
If you want to volunteer with Make-A-Wish, you will see some sad cases, but for the most part you will just get wonderful feeling of gratitude for what you have in your own life, and happy that you can be a small part of putting a smile on a child’s face.
Why should people volunteer for Make-A-Wish, or any community organization?
Volunteering for Make a Wish or any organization is so necessary. Like in Make-A-Wish, we need more volunteers! There just aren’t enough of us to go around. And other organizations are much the same in that they are in need of volunteers so they can help those that need it.
How did you get involved in your other volunteer efforts?
I also volunteer with the Red Cross. I have been with them about seven years. I am an ambassador, the person who checks you in at the blood drives and makes sure you have water and snacks. Here again, they are short of volunteers. I just feel good to give back. I have been fortunate over the years myself and feel the draw to give back.
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