Early in her work as an office manager and travel agent with All About Travel, Heather Hurst helped plan a wish trip for a child who dreamed of seeing elephants in South Africa. Along with the family’s travel documents, she tucked in a small stuffed elephant.

When the family returned, they shared photos of the young boy carrying it everywhere throughout his trip. “That was really touching to me,” she recalls. “That’s when I really understood just how important it is to help with these wishes.”

For wish families, traveling internationally offers a chance to look beyond treatment and hospital walls—to explore the world and create life-long memories together. It also requires careful planning, especially for families who may be traveling internationally for the first time or navigating complex medical needs.

“We always say that it takes a hundred hands to grant a wish,” says Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area CEO Betsy Biern. “With our international wishes, it’s way more than that.”

All About Travel—a Kentucky-based travel agency—has been one of those helping hands. Since partnering with Make-A-Wish America nearly 20 years ago, they’ve generously provided pro bono services to support chapters in granting travel wishes.

At Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area alone, they’ve helped plan more than 30 international travel wishes since 2024, with more on the horizon, to destinations including Sydney, Paris, London, and Tokyo. “Our partnership with All About Travel has had a tremendous impact on our ability to grant meaningful travel wishes,” says Director of Wish Fulfillment Ana Maria Vallarino. 

For founder Darren Wilson, who grew up in rural Kentucky, travel has always represented transformative possibility. “International travel opened up an entire world of opportunities,” he says.

His first thought to extend that opportunity to wish kids came during a conversation at the local YMCA with a friend who worked at Make-A-Wish Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana. “She said, ‘I’ve got this wish. I have a child that wants to go to Australia, and I have no clue about Australia,’” Wilson recalls. “‘Would you be willing to help?’ And I said, ‘Well, sure.’”

That single wish in Kentucky soon grew into supporting dozens of Make-A-Wish chapters and eventually a nationwide partnership. Today, All About Travel helps chapters give wish families the confidence to travel far from home, knowing they’re supported every step of the way.

“Despite being a small team, All About Travel provides exceptional service, balancing complex logistics, budget considerations, and the unique needs of each wish family,” says Vallarino. “We know when a wish is in their hands, it will be handled with care, and their dedication makes them feel like an extension of our wish planning team.”

One recent example is Zoey’s wish to travel to South Korea for a K-pop adventure, our chapter’s milestone 10,000th wish granted. With the help of All About Travel, Zoey and her family experienced the culture behind her favorite music in a truly meaningful way. “I feel like my wish is a part of me now,” Zoey says of the trip. “We’ve never had an experience like that, and it’s still ingrained in my mind.” 

In recognition of their extraordinary partnership, All About Travel received the 2025 Wish Impact Award at our Wish Insiders Summit: East Bay, honoring their generosity, expertise, and unwavering dedication to wish granting.

“I never really thought that my career would have an impact on others as much as it does working with Make-A-Wish,” says Hurst. As Wilson puts it, “We’re so grateful to have the opportunity, and we just look forward to many more.”