Brenda (second from right) with three other milestone volunteers at our Evening of Wishes: Rediscover Wonder on March 6, 2025.

In 1985, Brenda Yamashita was seeking community work that would help children. She saw a Make-A-Wish story on television and signed up to volunteer the next day. She mentioned it to her sister, Loretta, and learned that Loretta had begun volunteering with Make-A-Wish the very same week! “Neither of us knew the other was doing it,” Brenda says. “We were so shocked.” 

Brenda’s first experience volunteering was at a fundraiser at the Zucchini Festival in Hayward. “Make-A-Wish had a booth where they were doing a diaper race, and parents could sign up their kids to do a crawl,” she recalls. 

While Loretta helped out in the office and planned fundraising events, Brenda focused mainly on wish granting. She still remembers her first wish discovery interview with a teenage girl. “She was seventeen and she wanted to go to Paris, so that’s where she went,” says Brenda. “She was very excited and had a wonderful time.”

Since that first wish, Brenda has been on hundreds of interviews, helping discover heartfelt wishes. She’s personally helped with bedroom makeovers and set up luxurious shopping sprees.

For the first 20 years, she worked with a variety of wish-granting partners. Then she was assigned to a wish with fellow volunteer Joe Sanger, and a long-lasting wish team was formed. “We hit it off and have been doing them together ever since,” she says. “For one, the little girl wanted a meditation spot in the backyard. Joe does pottery, so he made some clay tiles to hang in the meditation spot.” 

Through her volunteering with Make-A-Wish and her former work in a pediatric medical setting, Brenda has seen many families navigate the challenges of critical illness. “One thing I’ve noticed is that kids often deal with it better than adults,” she says. “They don’t know what they are missing. They’re naive, which is a good thing. It helps them handle it better.” 

For years, Brenda helped host Christmas parties at Children’s Hospital Oakland, Kaiser Permanente, and John Muir Hospital. “My sister organized them, and I dressed up as an elf and did face painting,” she says. “Bob Montgomery [former Board president] would dress up as Santa. We’d buy all the presents for the kids and would have these huge wrapping parties.” 

For 40 years and counting, Brenda has helped bring comfort and joy to countless wish kids and their families. She says there’s a place for everyone who might want to volunteer at Make-A-Wish. “I think there are so many ways of approaching it,” she says. “You can do wish granting like me or fundraising like my sister.” 

However you get involved, you’ll be helping firsthand to change lives, says Brenda. “Wishes do wonderful things,” she adds