Story Part 1 | Photo Gallery 1 | Story Part 2 | Photo Gallery 2 | Part 3

Part 1: Robin and the volunteers who worked behind-the-scenes for more than a year to grant her wish

Llysa is a born actress. She’s played too many roles to remember.

But she’ll never forget her role as the White Rabbit from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. She has an audience of just one – wish kid Robin.

Llysa’s visit is the latest chapter in Robin’s struggle with a brain tumor. Robin’s wish to go to Wonderland with Alice is more than a year in a making … because of people like Llysa – people with time, talent and generosity.

Her wish granters know this is a rare wish, a flight of imagination that demands all the creativity they can offer. It takes months. They plan. They recruit. They turn Robin’s fondest wish into a plan … a plan that involves talented, kind-hearted people in the Seattle community. Actors, designers, groundskeepers, store managers and many more devote themselves to Robin’s wish.

Behind every activity that delights Robin is a kind volunteer – someone with talent, time and willingness to make her life better. They are members of an acting troupe, Space Needle employees, department store employees, catamaran captains, limo drivers and more. They are the real story of Robin’s wish, a tale of countless volunteer hours, endless planning and caring people who said “I can help.”

Part 2: Robin and her adventures through Wonderland

Robin opens her door and finds the White Rabbit on her doorstep. She wasn’t sure her wish to have her favorite fairy tale come to life was possible. But there’s the proof – thanks to stage actress Llysa, who delivers a message: The Queen requests Robin’s presence to play croquet.

They’re off in a limousine. Their first stop … a department store, where personal shoppers outfit Robin in fashions fit for meeting a Queen.

Robin tries eight different dresses to find the right one. Then, she’s on her way to Seattle’s iconic Space Needle … up the rabbit hole to start her adventure. There’s a tea party at a private dinner club. She boards a catamaran bound for an island where her own Wonderland awaits, along with its odd inhabitants and a super-sized croquet field. There, she plays croquet with hedgehogs, solves puzzles and – eventually – wins the queen’s crown. Robin meets the Cheshire Cat, the White Queen, the Tweedles … all the characters that offered her escape during the hardest moments of treatment.

Part 3: How Robin's wish affected her and her family

Robin returns to Seattle on-board a seaplane. Her voyage through Wonderland with Alice is over.

But the impact of her wish lives on. She and her family find a renewed sense of the importance of giving. They see how it helped them. They think of the difficult moments of facing the brain tumor as a family. Robin’s mom, J.T., remembers how every contact with a Make-A-Wish^® volunteer “sparked a ray of sunshine, a sense that something wonderful was in the works for Robin.”

Some days, Robin and her family thought the promise of “the wish seemed too good to be true, and we didn’t want to assume it was really going to happen.” Still, they found joy in the anticipation. During the “down moments,” the promise of the wish buoyed the entire family.

Today, the memory of Robin’s visit to Wonderland lives in their hearts. It’s a wellspring of joy, awe, gratitude. Though the volunteers were strangers before Robin’s wish came true, they’re now part of her family’s story forever. This is the impact of a wish.