Rachel Faught joined the Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area staff early in her career when she was just beginning to get a sense of what she wanted to do.  

"After college, I worked in a few administrative positions but had this idea that I wanted to work on events and/or for a non-profit organization,” she says. “At the time, I didn't have experience in either, so my prospects seemed a bit hazy.” 

As luck would have it, a friend of Rachel’s volunteered with Make-A-Wish as a wish granter and referred her to an open events assistant position. “I applied and was fortunate enough to be hired!” Rachel recalls. “I was attracted to the position because really, who wouldn’t want to work for such an inspirational organization?! And the entry-level position was well-suited to my age and experience level. It seemed like a role in which I’d be able to learn and grow.” 

Five years later, Rachel has gained experience and skills and now serves as our chapter’s Events Manager, overseeing two annual events and managing the chapter’s fundraising auctions. In that time, she’s helped to modernize events, transition to new ticketing software, and move to online auctions during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“I’m proud of the relationships I have helped to cultivate, be it with repeat event attendees or new vendors that I’ve helped to secure,” Rachel says. “It’s wonderful to catch up with people at our events and witness their commitment to our work across the years.” 

Events Director Chloe Mecum says, “Rachel has been an invaluable member of the team as we navigated this new events landscape from in-person to virtual, to hybrid, and back again. She teamed with our friends at Bricoleur Vineyards for a series of virtual Quarantine Kitchen events and partnered with our inspiring Youth Board and Wish It Forward Council to host our first peer-to-peer Wish Quest virtual scavenger hunt—which was so successful in 2020, it was brought back by popular demand in 2021!” 

As the Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area Events Manager, Rachel has learned to look at events as storytelling vehicles for the amazing wishes created by our program team every day. “Being able to share the impact of our mission, giving guests the opportunity to experience the joy of a wish and hopefully give generously in response to that story is what it’s all about!” she says.

A moment from behind the scenes of an event stands out to Rachel as a memorable time she describes as "a bit of saga.” “In 2019, after the annual gala we were packing up the van with our gear and the van was totally full. To shut the doors, we needed to move it slightly forward. My colleague, in her post-event delirium, accidentally reversed and backed the van into the loading dock,” Rachel says, “The open doors crunched into the side of the concrete dock, which made a sizable dent and prevented the doors from closing properly after that.” 

After calling roadside assistance, a tech arrived who spent an hour hammering the doors with a giant mallet. Eventually, it became clear that the doors weren’t closing, and they rented a different van. Rachel says, “Then, my colleague had the enlightened idea to climb inside the van and try closing the doors from the inside, one more time. Miraculously, it worked!” Finally, at around 2:30 in the morning, the group found a 24-hour diner for some much-needed food after a VERY long day.