Melissa Milne Goulder attended Camp Arroyo through Camp Sunburst and became one of The Taylor Family Foundation’s (TTFF) first ambassadors, traveling with us to speaking engagements to give a first-hand account of the significance of attending a camp with other kids who faced the same daily challenges.

Melissa acquired HIV/AIDS in 1981 through a blood transfusion shortly after birth. Not one to keep secrets, she chose to share her diagnosis with classmates at Indian Valley School in Walnut Creek, where she was warmly embraced.

As a teenager and young adult, Melissa met with members of congress, the Surgeon General, and President & Mrs. Clinton. She was interviewed by ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN, and appeared on the Today Show. Her transparency surrounding being a kid with HIV/AIDS, her struggles with depression, and feeling like what she described as the “last car on the track when most of her peers had died,” helped spur HIV/AIDS medication distribution throughout the United States for infants and children.

Melissa passed away in 2019 following complications from a lung infection.