It’s been a while since I have posted and frankly that is a
good thing. We haven’t had many issues since baseball ended for us earlier this summer. Life has been nice for Cody as he has relaxed
and played video games the majority of the remainder of this summer. Monday and Tuesday this week are big days for
Cody. He is doing something called Web
Cares at his middle school. He’s in 8th
grade now so he, as the “big man” on campus now, has volunteered to mentor and
help the new incoming 7th graders.
The 7th graders have a transition day 2 days before school starts so kids like Cody
volunteer to help these new kids find their lockers and classrooms. He has such a big heart. He is always wanting to help people. So the next two days he has to go to school
for 5 hours each day to “train” on how to help the new 7th graders on transition day. We will see how he does since he is not on a
normal schedule he is still in summer mode. He is still on the
staying up late and getting up late so the next week may be interesting. We are going to work to get him on a school schedule this week or he is not going to even make it through the first week of school.
You may or may not be aware the last month or so has been big for us. Cody was recently accepted and
awarded a “Dream” from the Kansas City Chapter of the Dream Factory. If you are not familiar with the what the
Dream Factory is all about you should check them out they are an amazing
organization. Their mission is "To
grant dreams to critically and chronically ill children from the ages of 3 through 18." Cody was granted a
dream to go to Disney World this October.
It was an amazing and humbling experience being presented with this
dream for him. At the same time, we were
presented the dream we found out that there was one more surprise and
honor. We found out his story was shared
with a local foundation that works with the Dream Factory here in KC called The
Boulevard of Dreams. The Boulevard of Dreams is a local foundation
started by a family of a dream factory family whose son lost his battle with
his disease. His amazing family has
taken his beautiful smile and beautiful memories to help many children in our
area with lots of different medical conditions continue to smile alongside the
Dream Factory. We are overwhelmed with gratitude for the smile they have put on
our son’s face and the memories made and yet to come by granting his Disney
Dream.
This past Friday night we attended a Gala for the Boulevard
of Dreams which was an impressive event that’s sole purpose was to raise money for
the dream factory. It was an astounding and
humbling even as being present. It was fun to see all that the community does and
overwhelming as Cody was the guest of honor.
The event started at about 5 PM and they had food and drinks and all
kinds of events going on. We were told
to get there about 8 PM as there is just a lot mingling and the real
introductions and presentation of additional dreams didn’t start until about
8:30 PM. We go there and got settled
in about that time. Cody was a mess he was so
nervous. He knew this was about him and
others and he doesn’t handle this level of attention very well. We of course dosed him
higher for the evening to handle the stress of the event.
Len Jennings from the local ABC affiliate here in KC was the
MC. He was super nice. He came over and talked to us and told us
what he was going to do and how to handle it all. They wanted us to get up on stage with
everyone but Cody was very scared of doing that so Len graciously said he had a
wireless microphone and told us he would come to our table to talk to us.
About 8:45 PM they started introducing kids. These kids were there for the dream factory
and didn’t know why. It was so much fun to
see them presented with dreams. There was about 6 or 7 kids ranging from 6 to 17 years
old. One child, 6 years old, has spina
bifida and her dream was to meet Princess Elsa.
So they presented her with an adorable Elsa dress and some other items
to go along with her trip to Disney world.
One 17-year-old former dream factory child received a $5000 scholarship
for her college career. There were many
dreams handed out on that night and every child had something different they
wanted as their dream and each child’s life was affected by a chronic illness
that made life difficult but through it all they and their families endure it
all. It is amazing the love that these
people running the organization have for complete strangers like us. Treating us as if we were their family
too. I wish I could explain the feeling
of it all.
They presented all the surprise dreams and paused for a bit
to do the auction of 6 special items. An AMC package to see as many movies as you want to see for 2 for a year, a royals dugout suite package for a couple games, some trips/cruises to Disney, and a huge Caribbean all expenses paid trip. All of them raised thousands of dollars for the organization. The final item being the most adorable 12-week old full breed golden
Labrador retriever. He was so
cute. The two women who raised this puppy to this point were sad and happy at the same time. The dog they had raised for the last 6 or 7
weeks was no longer theirs but they knew the dog was going to a great family as
the buyer turned out to be their friend.
I think their friend fell in love with the dog while they raised it so
at least the two girls would get to see their dog a lot. The auction was a whirlwind. I hadn’t been through something like that in
a while and it was sheer craziness and fun to see the outpouring of support for
the dream factory and the boulevard for dreams.
After they auction the Noah Tyson family got up and started
telling Noah’s story and I couldn’t help but cry. It is an amazing and sad story of a little
boy who lost his fight. He got to go to
Disney world for his dream and unfortunately lost his battle with his disease a
few months later. This wonderful family
turned his tragedy into an amazing event and organization to help other kids
like his son deal with life-threatening and chronic diseases and disorders. They give families a little piece of happy in
what can frequently be a daily battle in life. 
They
showed a nice presentation about Cody and his disease and what it means to his
life. Len Jennings then walked over and
talked to Cody and asked a few questions. He asked him what he likes to do.
He of course said he loves to play baseball, loves to watch Harry Potter
movies, and of course loves Disney World.
It was a neat few minutes while the whole room cheered for him and of
course Cody hated every minute of it. He
told me later his heart as racing and he was a nervous wreck. I could see it in his face he was scared to
death but he handled it well.
The hard part was over the rest of the event went on and
they raised a lot of money. It was great
to see the community support as people pledged thousands of
dollars in donations at the end of it all.
We headed over to again thank the Tyson family and they were wonderful
people. The love they showed for Cody
and for us. Telling us if we needed
anything at all just to call them and they would help in any way possible. It was amazing that these complete strangers
have offered so much to us. Mr. Tyson is a nurse so understood exactly what we were going through and understood the battle that he faces everyday. I cannot express enough how much these people love what they do. You can see it in their faces and in their actions when they talk to everyone.
The event was drawing to a close so we worked our way outside. We waited in line to get our car from the valet. We were talking
about how Maddie could get a sticker for her future car while we were at Disney
this year since she’ll own a car now.
There was a man in front of us in line and kept smiling as we were
talking about our Disney trip. He turned
around to say “oh hey are you the baseball boy from tonight?” I told him yes this is Cody. He said “I used to play for the Seattle
Mariners, but now I play for the T-Bones.”
Cody of course thought it was amazing just to meet him, but the guy took
it one further. He said “hey I know the
Tyson’s I’ll get your info and send you some T-bones tickets, I’d love to have
you out to a game.” Again we were
floored. This guy didn’t need to say or
do anything and he went out of his way to talk to Cody and invite him to a
T-Bones game. I don’t know if it will
really happen or not but again we were just humbled by the love and affection
complete strangers feel for someone like our son.
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