This has got to win the IC prize for most heartwarming story of the week. It might even make Brian crack a smile (a benevolent one, not the evil grin he usually has going on). Seriously, this story’s so nice, it belongs on the Lifetime channel.
Erik Martin, a 13-year-old boy living with liver cancer, became a super hero for a day, teaming up with Spider Man and Lightning Lad to free the Seattle Sounders from their own locker room at Qwest Field. He also freed a Puget Sound Electric employee from the top of his truck and raced to the Seattle Space Needle to capture the dastardly duo who had caused all this mayhem – Dr. Dark and Blackout Boy. After an exhausting day’s heroics, Martin commented “this is the best day of my life”.
This day became possible not only because of the Make-a-Wish Foundation, but also through the willing cooperation of hundreds of volunteers:
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
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- Bellevue Police and King County and Snohomish sheriff’s offices stopped traffic on two major highways to let Electron Boy zoom to the rescue in a Delorean sports car owned by “Moonshine Maid”;
- The entire Seattle Sounders professional soccer team allowed themselves to be jailed and rescued by Electron Boy;
- Edgar Hansen and Jake Anderson, actors on Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch” played the bad guys;
- Over 250 Puget Sound Electric employees cheered him on as he rescued their colleague.
You gotta read the story for yourself. When people rail about how self-centered Americans are, pull this one out to remind yourself that people will go to great lengths to make a boy’s dream of being a super hero come true.
(H/T Kathi Hamlon)