Amy and Marty Brimmage still fondly recall the 2016 Mediterranean cruise Make-A-Wish made possible for their daughter, Rebecca, when she was 17 and battling Ewing Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer.
Amy said the wish managers made it memorable with details like a red carpet set up for her at the cruise terminal and someone to escort her through the line.
“We were able to do her trip at a time that she was healthy enough to go,” Amy said. “For the rest of her life, we continued to talk about the trip, the opportunities she had to do things because of the special care her wish managers took. It was a unique, once-in-a-lifetime experience that she cherished, and we talked about those memories all the time.”
About 10 years later, in their daughter’s memory, Amy and Marty are supporting Make-A-Wish North Texas’ efforts to provide transformational experiences for other children with critical illnesses.
“The idea of granting wishes is to create a magical situation for these critically ill children who are going through some very, very tough times so that they can have a life changing, really transformational experience that provides hope and emotional and mental uplift for both the critically ill child and their family at a time when they really need it,” Marty said. “Make-A-Wish North Texas goes to extraordinary lengths to make each and every wish truly magical and unique and exceeding all expectations of both the child and the family.”
Marty joined the board of directors of Make-A-Wish North Texas in 2024, and this year, Amy and Marty co-chaired Make-A-Wish North Texas’ annual Wish Night gala on May 2, which raised a record-breaking amount of nearly $3.2 million.
“This year’s Wish Night was truly transformational for our organization and, more importantly, for the children and families we serve. The record-breaking support we saw is a powerful reflection of how deeply our community believes in this mission at a critical moment. Through our ‘Two Years, Too Long’ campaign, we are working with urgency to eliminate the wait for every eligible child, because a wish can’t wait. The generosity in that room is helping us move closer to a future where hope is delivered when it’s needed most,” said Make-A-Wish North Texas CEO Kim Elenez.
On Wish Night this year, Make-A-Wish North Texas announced a $500,000 gift from the Rebecca Buchanan Brimmage Foundation.
““We are profoundly grateful to The Rebecca Buchanan Brimmage Foundation for this extraordinary and deeply meaningful gift,” Elenez added. “The Brimmage family’s generosity is made even more powerful through their personal connection to our mission and the lasting legacy of Rebecca, whose wish journey continues to inspire hope for so many others. This gift will help propel our Two Years, Too Long campaign forward at a critical time, bringing us closer to a future where every eligible child receives the life-changing power of a wish without unnecessary delay.”
Marty says the job of helping provide wishes to critically ill children through support of Make-A-Wish North Texas is never done, though.
“The North Texas area is growing like crazy and it has significant and wonderful medical facilities that attract more and more critically ill children that then are eligible for more and more wishes, so our job is never done,” he said.
To learn more about how to support Make-A-Wish North Texas, visit their website.
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