Make-A-Wish Mississippi grants Bolivar County girl’s Disney World wish

Make-A-Wish Mississippi helped send 5-year-old Asia Sherron of Bolivar County to Walt Disney World after she was diagnosed with sickle cell anemia at birth. Her family was scheduled to board a plane on Saturday for a weekend in Florida, turning a child’s wish into a carefully arranged escape from the grind of illness.

The trip rested on more than one organization. Make-A-Wish Mississippi partnered with the Mississippi Nurses Foundation, and the wish also depended on donors, volunteers, family participation and community support to make the experience possible. For families facing serious illness, that kind of coordination can matter as much as the destination itself, because it replaces one more appointment with a moment built around joy.

Disney has become the most familiar destination for many of those wishes for a reason. Disney and Make-A-Wish say their partnership began in 1980, and Disney says it has worked with the charity for more than 45 years. Disney also says it is the world’s largest wish granter for Make-A-Wish and grants a wish every hour of every day. In August 2025, Disney said it had granted its 170,000th wish with Make-A-Wish, and company background material says more than 175,000 Disney wishes have been granted over the years.

For Bolivar County, Asia’s wish showed how a statewide nonprofit and a health foundation can come together around one child, one diagnosis and one family. The result was not just a vacation to Walt Disney World in Florida. It was a reminder that in Mississippi, wish-granting still depends on a network of people willing to make room for a child’s moment of happiness.