By Hannah Wallace

For Megan Rosario and her family, 2024 was a rough year. Fortunately, 2025 is going much better.

In January of last year, Megan, then 14 and living with her family outside Houston, was diagnosed with a brain tumor that would require surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. While she underwent that months-long process, her doctors connected her with the Make-a-Wish Foundation, a national organization that grants wishes to critically ill children.

“We ask them to think big,” said Richard Kelly of Make-a-Wish of Southern Florida. Megan’s big wish? To embark on a series of nature-filled activities in Sarasota. Once it was decided, her excitement helped keep her positive during her treatments.

“She started planning for this trip back in April 2024. Make-a-Wish encourages that,” said Lori Rosario, Megan’s mother. “The doctors were giving all kinds of ideas where to go. My mom and my aunt both live in Sarasota, but Megan hadn’t been there since she was a baby. But she loves wildlife a lot, and [Sarasota] is a fantastic place to see stuff. It was something fun we could look forward to.”

Megan finished her radiation treatments in November. On March 26, she and her family, including her two younger sisters, were aboard a plane headed to southwest Florida.

“From the second they leave their house to the second they get home, we cover every expense,” said Make-a-Wish’s Kelly.

The first full day of vacation centered on a wildlife cruise with Siesta’s Fun Boat Tours, which included sightings of dolphins and manatees, and a special stop by one of the area’s local rookeries. Megan, an avid birdwatcher and aspiring ornithologist, loves to take pictures. As part of the experience, the tour company gifted her a refurbished camera to capture her memories. (The company also had presents for Megan’s sisters.)

“We have companies we partner with all over our territory,” said Kelly, who has worked with Fun Boat Tours on previous wishes. “We have to know that this is going to be a first-class experience.”

But not every wish has been wished before. After a day spent birdwatching at the Celery Fields (including a sighting of a painted bunting, Megan’s favorite species), day 3 involved a trip to Big Cat Habitat to take a special yoga class with the conservation center’s resident lemurs.

“We’ve granted 15,000 wishes, we’ve never had a wish that involved lemur yoga,” laughed Kelly, who was on hand for the experience. “I’ll never forget the look on her face, the laughter. You can go your whole life and never see that.”

Megan’s wish also included a trip to Treeumph Adventure Course, with an exhilarating trip down a zipline, as well as the requisite Florida alligator sighting.

Overall, the five-day trip proved a much-needed week of joy for Megan, as well as her family, from the animal adventures to the simple pleasures of eating meals together around the table at their rental house.

“This was a great reward for everyone,” said Megan’s mother. “It was a very special time to do special things, relax, and have fun as a family.”

“There are people that believe that what we do is nice, that it’s a nice thing and then we leave and [the families] go back to their lives,” said Kelly. “We believe the wish is necessary for the emotional and spiritual and physical healing for wish children, and that extends to their families as well.”

Megan remains cancer-free.