Day 87: Electron Boy to the Rescue!

Just last week I wrote about the power a super-hero can possess, especially for ill children.  Some kids may happen into a cape, and grow into their persona.  Others dream of saving the world their whole life.  Erik Martin, a 13-year-old boy, had a wish to save the world as Electron Boy.  And his wish came true.  Make-A-Wish Foundation created an elaborate scheme to have Erik save Seattle from the forces of Dr. Dark.  And for a day, he was not only a hero, but a hero with super-powers.  

But doesn't every super-hero need a comic book?  Superman, Batman, Spider-man, Wolverine, Wonder Woman.  They all have comic books.  Matt Campbell, an illustrator at Capstone Comics, along with other artists, gave this boy-hero just that.  Using events from Erik's Make-A-Wish day, they created a 12-page comic book where Electron Boy saved the city of Seattle, once again, from the grip of Dr. Dark.   Here is the comic tale of Electron Boy.

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"Thursday was shaping up to be just another 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.

Pulling off a wish like this one required a big story, and a lot of heart. And so, with a note of panic in his voice, Spider-Man explained the dilemma: "Dr. Dark" and "Blackout Boy" had imprisoned the Seattle Sounders in a locker room at Qwest Field. Only Electron Boy could free them.

Erik got into his red-and-blue superhero costume, and called on the powers of Moonshine Maid, who owns a DeLorean sports car. For good measure, more than 20 motorcycle officers from the Bellevue Police Department and King County and Snohomish sheriff's offices escorted Electron Boy to Seattle.

"They shut down 405 — they shut down I-90," marveled Moonshine Maid, aka Misty Peterson. "I thought it would just be me, in the car."

At Qwest Field, Electron Boy was directed by frantic fans to the Sounders locker room, where the entire team was shouting for help behind jammed doors. With a little help from Lightning Lad, the alter ego of local actor Rob Burgess, Erik opened the door with his lightning rod. The Sounders cheered.

"Thank you, Electron Boy," said defender Taylor Graham.

"You saved us!" exclaimed forward Nate Jaqua.

"Good job, big man," said defender Tyrone Marshall. And forward Steve Zakuani mutely bowed his thanks.Electron Boy seemed a little dazed by his powers. Out on Qwest Field, the Sounders gave Erik a hero's congratulations, posed for pictures and gave him a jersey and autographed ball.

Everyone was startled when, overhead, the Jumbotron crackled to life.

"Electron Boy, I am Dr. Dark and this is Blackout Boy," sneered an evil voice, as the villain — Edgar Hansen, and his sidekick Jake Anderson, both of Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch" — taunted the young superhero. "We are here to take over Seattle and make it dark!"

On the Jumbotron, a video showed a Puget Sound Electric employee Jim Hutchinson trapped in the top of his bucket truck in front of PSE's Bellevue headquarters. Only Electron Boy could save him.

As Electron Boy's motorcade — the DeLorean, the 25 motorcycle officers and a white limo — rolled through downtown Bellevue, pedestrians stopped in their tracks and pulled out their cameras to take pictures. Clearly, somebody famous was in town. But who could it be?

"It's Electron Boy," Erik's older sister, Charlotte Foote, shouted out the window of the limousine.

More than 250 PSE employees gathered outside the company's headquarters and cheered as Electron Boy freed the trapped worker. "It was so loud, people in office buildings were looking out the window," said Make-A-Wish communications director Jeannette Tarcha.

But Dr. Dark and Blackout Boy were still at large. Electron Boy got a tip that the evil duo were at the Space Needle, where they had disabled the elevator and trapped people on the observation deck. Racing back to Seattle, Electron Boy stepped out of the DeLorean to a cheering crowd of dozens of admirers, and confronted his nemesis.

"How did you find us, Electron Boy?" Dr. Dark demanded.

Erik wordlessly leapt at Dr. Dark with his lightning rod, freezing the villain. Then he unlocked the elevator and freed the people trapped upstairs.

Bellevue police Officer Curtis McIvor snapped handcuffs on Dr. Dark and Blackout Boy, who couldn't resist some last words: "How can we thank you for saving our souls?"

A tiny smile played around Electron Boy's mouth. Just for good measure, he held his lightning sword to Blackout Boy's throat again. The crowd went wild. "Hip-hip, hooray!"

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.""  The Seattle Times

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Day 78: Super Powers

What kid doesn't dream of being a superhero with super powers?  Super powers can help you escape from your pesky little brother.  To travel to a castle in a far away land.   Fly.  See through walls.  Rescue your friend from the grips of a bully.  The possibilities are endless.

Amy Pankratz may have seen the healing power a superhero can possess, as well.  What started as a gift for her daughter, has become a job fit for someone with super-sewing-powers.    During a hospital stay, her daughter let other children borrow her cape.  Those sick children began to fly through the halls, forgetting at that moment the fatigue and pain.  What a gift, to be able to forget your current circumstance, even just briefly, and fly.  Here is Amy's story, found on Yahoo's Top 10 Inspiring Acts of 2010.  

The catalyst: Are superheroes for real? Amy Pankratz just might qualify.

Like many superheroes, the stay-at-home mother from Sioux Falls, South Dakota,  discovered her powers by accident. One cold winter day, her then four-year-old daughter Isabella said, "Mommy, I want a superhero cape."  Pankratz says, "I told her OK." But then she couldn't find capes for little girls at the store, so she sewed her own.

Months later, when Isabella fell ill with a double virus and had to be hospitalized, the power of the cape multiplied and transformed into Wonder Capes.

The act: During a brief hospital stay, her daughter begged Pankratz to pack her pink princess cape. "On the third day, Isabella asked if she could flit into the hallway with her cape. And to us, that means skip." Pankratz says. Kids with IV poles watched in awe. "That's when Isabella put the cape on another hospitalized child." Every other pediatric patient on that hospital floor wanted to soar through the halls. Pankratz started creating, sewing, and donating customized superhero capes: more than 4,000 and counting.

The mother of three powers through her days juggling schedules, taking her "love bugs" to preschool and kindergarten, and checking off routine to-dos from her lengthy list. By night she sews capes. After the kids are tucked in, you can hear her secret weapon –- her Brother sewing machine -- whirring away.

Bolts of cheery, bright fabric (animal, floral, and polka-dot patterns) line one wall of her sewing room. It takes Pankratz three or four hours to customize a cape, and she considers each child and gives their capes a special blessing. "I read their stories, think about them, their hobbies, favorite colors; I pray over them," she says. "If, even for a moment, the cape brings some relief, comfort, and hope to them, it's worth it," she says.

It has for many. One parent who lost her 4-year-old daughter to cancer took the time to send a heartfelt email to Pankratz: "Her cape was the one constant in her life. It was her security, and honestly, our security too. We are so grateful for someone like you; we felt your prayers in her cape."

Five-year-old Brooke Mulford is fighting stage-four, high-risk neuroblastoma, childhood cancer of the nervous system. Countless procedures -- chemotherapy, harvesting stem cells, radiation, clinical trials -- have become routine. In a pink cape and special floral-designed hearing aids, Brooke says, "It makes me brave." Her mother, Amy Mulford, says she's witnessed the power of the cape. "It gives her strength. Always at the hospital, she would pull her blanket up, and she would have the cape running on top of it, so she was pretending being protected by her cape."

The ripple: Supermom Pankratz has sparked others' hidden powers to think about what they could do to give.

The Wonder Capes project inspired Angie Kappenman, a mother from Madison, South Dakota. "The cape made [my son] Nicholas feel strong. He would fly through the hospital halls to receive his treatments. He would be tired from the treatments, but when he puts it on, he gets his energy and truly believes he is a superhero," says Kappenman. The cape inspired the Kappenhams' backpack donation program, Stay Strong, Carry On, at the local hospital. The backpacks include coloring books, toys, and activities and can be used as organizational tool for the formidable amount of hospital paperwork.

A mother-daughter duo, Art-Moms, is teaming up with Pankratz to make superhero keychains for their Together We Can All Make a Difference campaign. One hundred percent of proceeds will go to childhood cancer research.

Church and community members were also inspired to ride the ripple. Extra fabric scraps are donated to a local church group and are used to make quilts for the homeless.

In Norway, Olea's Cupcakes joined forces with Pankratz to whip up a Cupcakes for a Cure benefit. Proceeds will go to a local hospital. Other partnerships are in the works: The Make-A-Wish Foundation, Children's Miracle Network, and St. Baldrick's Hospital are teaming up with the supermom to give her special capes to sick, injured, or disabled children and their siblings around the world.

Donate a cape.

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