ST.JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – His dream is to go see Mickey, and thanks in part to students at Switzerland Point Middle School, Caden Wood’s dream is coming true.
Thursday afternoon he walked into a room full of students throwing him a party to celebrate. They helped raise money for Caden and his family to go on a week long trip to Disney World.
“It's called Give Kids the World Village. It's a magical place,” said Kate Wirz with Dreams Come True. “It's a really magical place for kids that can only stay there if they have a life-threatening illness.”
Caden was only 15 months old when he received a bone marrow transplant for a genetic immune disorder.
“He was really sick but as you can see he is now 4 and half years old and doing amazing,” explained Caden’s mother, Christina Wood, to the students. “We just want to thank you guys because we've been waiting for him to be old enough to enjoy a dream from Dreams Come True and we're so thankful.”
The students are part of the Dreams Come True Kids Helping Kids Program, and over the past 20 years their school has helped raise more than $60,000 for the Jacksonville non-profit that grants the dreams of First Coast children battling life-threatening illnesses.
“It just makes me so like happy that we can be able to do this or some other family that's been through so much, and the fact that to see everyone in that family so happy and so appreciative. It just makes everyone happy overall,” said eighth grader Emma Manthos.
For Caden and his family, it means he can just be a kid.
“It’s a sense of normalcy like be able to just for him to be a normal kid for us not to have to go the hospital and doctor appointments. We go like once a year now," said Wood. "We hardly ever go and no more medications and we can go and have fun. He had to live in a bubble for his entire first three years of his life. We couldn’t really go anywhere or do anything and so now we can actually go out enjoy life and have fun and it's amazing."
Caden and his 10-year-old brother both had the same genetic immune disorder and both had bone marrow transplants. Today, their mom says they are both disease free.
The Woods now give back through the Caden Project, a non-profit they started about three years ago. They give teddy bears to Dreams Come True and other local organizations for kids who are in the hospital to comfort them because they say every kids needs a bear hug. You can learn more about The Caden Project on their Facebook page and at this link.
And dreams come true is always looking for more schools to partner with. You can learn more here.
