Make-a-Wish Foundation + hundreds of volunteers = Electron Boy

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:

• 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)