I wish to meet Ashlyn Harris

When a child wishes to meet their favorite star, the Make-A-Wish celebrity team at National goes to work, creating connections and relationships with many of today’s top celebrities, including national sports teams. Fifteen-year old Mayla wished to meet her favorite soccer player, Ashlyn Harris. Ashlyn is the goalie on the Women’s National Team and FC Gotham in New Jersey.

Mayla was able to attend a team’s training, pre-game red carpet event and a game. She even got to choose the theme for the players to dress to for the red carpet event.

On Saturday morning, when Mayla arrived in the limo to the team training, her and her family were escorted to a special tented area to watch the team. Some team members immediately came over to her to say hi and give her a hug! Ashlyn then arrived with her daughter, Sloane, and when Mayla first saw her from a distance, she teared up. Mayla was very nervous, but eventually she opened up a little bit.

Ashlyn and Mayla were able to spend time together talking about how Ashlyn came to be a goal keeper, how Ashlyn likes NJ, how Mayla is going to be able to start playing soccer again soon, and how she got injured. Ashlyn sat with the family watching training for the majority of the time.

After training, all of the players came over to say hi to Mayla again. One player had ovarian cancer when she was 17 and spoke to Mayla about it. Then, the team took photos with Mayla and Ashlyn told the entire team to wear 90’s band-themed outfits for the Fits red carpet the following day. Ashlyn then took individual photos with the family, too, and then talked more to Mayla one-on-one and her family. She then presented Mayla with a game-worn shirt and gloves, both of which she signed. This made Mayla and the entire family well up. She told Mayla if she promises not to give her number out, she’ll give it to Mayla and she can facetime or call whenever she needs to. Mayla’s mom kept saying she only sees things like this on TV, and dad said it was so much more than they expected. Mom said Mayla typically does not go anywhere without her wig, as she’s self-conscious about not wearing it, but felt comfortable and wanted to go to the training without it.