I played a key role in helping Make‑A‑Wish identify the right children to feature in national commercials, PSAs, and brand campaigns. My work began with thoughtful interviews — spending time with wish kids and families to understand their personalities, passions, and stories. From there, I determined which children were the best fit for each campaign, then collaborated with partners to bring those stories to life through casting, pitching, and production coordination.
World Wish Day 2020
In 2019 Make-A-Wish America was filming it’s 2020 World Wish Day PSA celebrating 40 years of wishes. As part of the process, I helped identify media-friendly kids to participate. Ultimately we had wish kids Camilo, Tegan and Matthew participate in this three-day video shoot up in Los Angeles. The PSA was accompanied by nationwide billboards and marketing collateral to highlight the impact of a wish.
Wishes Take Muscle: Which Is Why We Called In John Cena!
Make-A-Wish America partnered with John Cena to celebrate World Wish Day in 2018. The day is a celebration of the first wish granted back in 1980. John Cena is Make-A-Wish’s most popular celebrity wish granter, helping to grant more than 500 wishes to children across the world.
As part of the campaign, we partnered with our national office to secure wish kid talent for the shoot. We had wish kid Kaylin (who wished to be a pop star) and wish kid Haoran (who wished to be a Marine) join in the for the shoot.
The campaign was comprised of PSAs, digital, print, social media and more. All 60 Make-A-Wish chapters across the country were promoting the campaign to spread brand awareness and increase donations to help grant more wishes. We were thrilled that our wish children were able to be a part of this incredible campaign!
Subaru Through The Years
Make-A-Wish partners with Subaru every year for its ‘Share the Love’ campaign. Make-A-Wish turns to its chapters to help cast Make-A-Wish children to be featured in their commercials. I worked to identify children from our local chapter who would be a great fit for the commercial. Luckily, we had Amina (who wished to be a chef and she can also sing) and Sage (who wished to go to Jackson Hole Wyoming) who fit the bill. Sage and Amina both scored air time in the 2016 commercial and were able to highlight their talents. Furthermore, Subaru adopted Sage’s wish and spent time with her on her wish trip to create a great wish video that highlights the partnership of Make-A-Wish and Subaru.
Additional Highlights
Subaru used Natalie, one of our wish kids as inspiration for its 2015 Share the Love commercial. Although our child was not selected (they ended up using an actress), they adopted Natalie’s wish to be a ballerina and hosted a party for her at the Orpheum Theatre recreating the commercial (I secured use of the venue at no cost). We created two videos surrounding this experience, one focusing on the corporate partnership with Make-A-Wish and Subaru, another offering up one of our first Spanish wish videos