Birthday wish comes true for boy with cancer
APPLETON, Wis. — Beckett's birthday wish has come true. And then some.
The boy from Greenville, who turned 4 on Wednesday, got attention around the world when he said in a Post-Crescent Media article last Friday that all he wanted for his birthday was lots of mail. Beckett Roerdink, who has incurable cancer, has undergone radiation, regular follow-up testing and continuous speech, occupational and physical therapy since his surgery in April 2013 for a brain tumor.
It hasn't been easy on him or his family, which includes father Kevin, mother Melanie, sister Madison, 10, and brother Ethan, 6.
Everyone, it seems, wanted to make this birthday something to remember.
"We thought 50 cards, not thousands," Melanie Roerdink said.
And they certainly didn't imagine 10,000 and counting, and that's not including packages.
"This outpouring of love and support for my son who has had a rough time has been amazing," Roerdink said. "It's very overwhelming but awesome."
One by one, four mail trucks tooting their horns made their way up Beckett's driveway Wednesday. Seven postal workers unloaded the cargo, taking time to sing "Happy Birthday" to Beckett, give him a miniature toy mail truck, snap some photos and wish him well.
"This is the good part of our job," Greenville postmaster Shelly Tobiasz said.
Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson stopped by, presenting Beckett with a plaque proclaiming Sept. 17, 2014, as Beckett Roerdink Day.
Jordan Vanstrom of Appleton, who is facing a cancer battle all his own, and his dad dropped by with a heartfelt message and a trophy for Beckett for being the toughest kid.
Three deliveries of balloons were made, and someone the family never met before hand-delivered a wrapped present.
And that was all in less than an hour.
"It's incredible. What do you say?" Kevin Roerdink said.
Inside the getting-more-crowded-by-the-minute two-bedroom apartment the Roerdinks are living in until the home they are building in Greenville is finished, cards and packages from North Carolina, Texas, Arizona and all over Wisconsin — Racine, Oneida, Waupaca, Kimberly, Green Bay, De Pere, Milwaukee — wait to be opened in piles on the floor, on the couch, in every open space.
A stuffed Bugs Bunny larger than Beckett rests in the corner, along with a coconut from Hawaii, a plastic frog and a monkey doing a face-plant.
"Let me see what's in here," Beckett said, picking out a stuffed envelope filled with homemade cards students at a school in Michigan made him.
"All these kids love you," Melanie said to Beckett, who didn't want to leave the comfort of her lap.
Grateful for her son's birthday wish come true, Roerdink also is thankful that all of this attention showered on one little boy will help spread awareness of childhood cancer.
"I would love to personally thank each and every person who sent something, but it just isn't possible," Roerdink said. "But we want people to know thank you from the bottom of our hearts because this has made my son's birthday so very special.
"I want him to remember it."
With memories to last a lifetime.