EMMA’S WISH TO BE A MERMAID

A Donor’s Impact Makes a Splash

Emma is an active 9-year-old girl from Pinehurst, NC who enjoys swimming and playing outside. Emma also has leukemia. Whenever Emma goes swimming, she dives down deep into the water and imagines a magical world where she can swim with her very own pink and purple mermaid tail. This world offers Emma an escape from her day-to-day life, full of endless doctor’s appointments and treatments.

When asked what she wanted her wish to be, Emma excitedly declared that she wished to be a mermaid! She imagined a day filled with adventure and looked forward to swimming in her very own mermaid tail. Emma even practiced swimming with her legs together so she would be ready to swim in her tail when her wish day arrived.

In the effort to create Emma’s perfect wish, Make-A-Wish reached out to a long-time donor, Robin Smith-Salzman, for help.

“I got a call that said, ‘Can we do a mermaid party for a wish kid at your house? We think you have a pool.’ And I said I’d be thrilled to help in any way that I could.”

“It was a really great time today,” Robin recalled,“To be able to be a part of a day that a whole family can enjoy… that’s a great thing. I wish that anybody that is a donor or wants to be a donor has the opportunity to feel the way I do today. It just fills your heart more than you can ever imagine!”

Emma’s wish was a bright spot for her entire family. “Obviously no one wants to have this occur to their child, but just to have a few moments where she could stop thinking about going through treatment and be allowed to just do her own thing...she will remember this for the rest of her life,” Emma’s dad said with a smile.

It was because of a special community of donors and supporters that Emma got to feel like the beautiful mermaid that she always knew she was. This is an experience Emma and her whole family will cherish for the rest of their lives.