I loved this story in our local newspaper the other day about a local boy with cancer gets to be a superhero for a day. It was also on the TV today, introducing him and his parents. It touched my heart. I will only include a brief part of it, but if you have the time...you really should read it. The reporter's name and email are just below. I am sure that I am partial to it because one... I love children, two...I am a cancer survivor myself, so I truly understand what a toll it takes on the whole family. How grateful I am that there are so many good people in the world, who were willing to make this young boy's dream come true.
Erik Martin, who is living with liver cancer, has always wanted to be a superhero. On Thursday, the regional chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation granted him that wish with an elaborate event that involved hundreds of volunteers in Bellevue and Seattle.
By Katherine Long klong@seattletimes.com
Seattle Times Eastside reporter
Dean Rutz Seattle Times
The Make-A-Wish Foundation made 13-year-old Erik Martin's dream of becoming a superhero come true.
Electron Boy lances Blackout Boy (Jake Anderson) before turning on Dr. Dark (Edgar Hansen) in the battle between good and evil at the Space Needle. Erik Martin's dream of becoming a superhero came true Thursday. At left is Lightning Lad, played by actor Rob Burgess.
DEAN RUTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES
A crowd of better than 200 gather outside Puget Sound Energy in Bellevue to cheer on Electron Boy as he saves a stranded worker in a bucket truck on Thursday.
School day for 13-year-old Erik Martin, but then something extraordinary happened: Spider-Man called.
Spider-Man happens to be one of the few people who knows that Erik, too, has a secret identity — he's Electron Boy, a superhero who fights the powers of evil with light.
And Spider-Man needed Erik's help.
Erik, who is living with liver cancer, has always wanted to be a superhero. On Thursday, the regional chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation granted him that wish with an elaborate event that involved hundreds of volunteers in Bellevue and Seattle.
The local chapter, which serves four states, grants more than 300 wishes every year to children with life-threatening medical conditions, but only a few of them involve so many participants.
Seattle City Councilwoman Sally Bagshaw stepped forward with a key to the city and a proclamation that Thursday was Electron Boy Day. Afterward, Erik posed for the TV cameras, flexed his muscles and spent some time astride a Bellevue police motorcycle.
"He's over the moon," said Foote. "This is definitely beyond anything we thought it would be."
Watching her son run across the plaza in front of the Space Needle, mom Judy Martin said Erik goes to school when he's able, but is often too tired. "He hasn't had this much energy in a long time," she said. "They called it the power of the wish, and they're right."
Like any good superhero, Electron Boy kept his innermost thoughts to himself. But he did have one important thing to say:
"This is the best day of my life."
May we all really stop and count our blessings each day!
"WE HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO DREAM HEROIC DREAMS. THOSE WHO SAY THAT WE'RE IN A TIME WHEN THERE ARE NO HEROES, THEY JUST DON'T KNOW WHERE TO LOOK." ~Ronald Reagan
" NURTURE YOUR MIND WITH GREAT THOUGHTS; TO BELIEVE IN THE HEROIC MAKES HEROES" ~ Benjamin Disraeli
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